Thermal and capillary effects on the caprock mechanical stability at In Salah, Algeria

Vilarrasa, Víctor; Rutqvist, Jonny; Rinaldi, Antonio Pio

doi:10.1002/ghg.1486

Thermal and capillary effects on the caprock mechanical stability at In Salah, Algeria

Journal Article · Mon Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1486· OSTI ID:1407269

Vilarrasa, Víctor ^[1]; Rutqvist, Jonny ^[2]; Rinaldi, Antonio Pio ^[3]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology, Lausanne (Switzerland)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology, Zurich (Switzerland)

Thermo-mechanical effects are important in geologic carbon storage because CO₂ will generally reach the storage formation colder than the rock, inducing thermal stresses. Capillary functions, i.e., retention and relative permeability curves, control the CO₂ plume shape, which may affect overpressure and thus, caprock stability. To analyze these thermal and capillary effects, we numerically solve non-isothermal injection of CO₂ in deformable porous media considering the In Salah, Algeria, CO₂ storage site. Here, we find that changes in the capillary functions have a negligible effect on overpressure and thus, caprock stability is not affected by capillary effects. But, we show that for the strike slip stress regime prevalent at In Salah, stability decreases in the lowest parts of the caprock during injection due to cooling-induced thermal stresses. Simulations show that shear slip along pre-existing fractures may take place in the cooled region, whereas tensile failure is less likely to occur. Indeed, only the injection zone and the lowest tens of meters of the 900-m-thick caprock at In Salah might be affected by cooling effects, which would thus not jeopardize the overall sealing capacity of the caprock. Furthermore, faults are likely to remain stable far away from the injection well because outside the cooled region the injection-induced stress changes are not sufficient to exceed the anticipated shear strength of minor faults. Nonetheless, we recommend that thermal effects should be considered in the site characterization and injection design of future CO₂ injection sites to assess caprock stability and guarantee a permanent CO₂ storage.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1407269

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1400513

Journal Information:: Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Journal Name: Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 5; ISSN 2152-3878

Publisher:: Society of Chemical Industry, WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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