Wettability effects on supercritical CO2–brine immiscible displacement during drainage: Pore-scale observation and 3D simulation

Hu, Ran; Wan, Jiamin; Kim, Yongman; Tokunaga, Tetsu K.

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.03.011

Title: Wettability effects on supercritical CO₂–brine immiscible displacement during drainage: Pore-scale observation and 3D simulation

Journal Article · Tue Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.03.011· OSTI ID:1532217

Hu, Ran ^[1]; Wan, Jiamin ^[2]; Kim, Yongman ^[2]; Tokunaga, Tetsu K. ^[2]

Wuhan University (China); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

We report that wettability is an important factor controlling the displacement of immiscible fluids in porous media and therefore affects the flow and transport of supercritical (sc) CO₂ in geologic carbon sequestration. Because few studies have focused on the wettability effect in scCO₂-brine flow systems, we experimentally and numerically tested influences of wettability on drainage at the pore network scale. Using a high-pressure micromodel-microscopy system, we performed experiments of scCO₂ invasion into brine-saturated water-wet and intermediate-wet micromodels, and recorded the scCO₂ invasion morphology under reservoir relevant conditions. We also performed pore-scale numerical simulations to infer 3D details of fluid–fluid displacement processes. During drainage under intermediate-wet conditions, we found higher scCO₂ saturation, wider scCO₂ fingering, and more compact displacement patterns. The simulation results are qualitatively consistent with the experiments. Through quantitative analyses of the experiments, we found that the reduced wettability decreases the displacement front velocity, promotes non-wetting phase pore-filling events in the longitudinal direction, delays the breakthrough time of invading fluid, and increases the displacement efficiency. Simulated results also show that the fluid–fluid interface area follows a unified power-law relation with scCO₂ saturation, and show smaller interface area in intermediate-wet case which suppresses the mass transfer between the phases. Lastlyl, these pore-scale results provide insights for the wettability effects on CO₂–brine immiscible displacement in geologic carbon sequestration.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); China Scholarship Council; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; 51409198; 51579188

OSTI ID:: 1532217

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1416040

Journal Information:: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 60, Issue C; ISSN 1750-5836

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 53 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (61)

Relative permeability hysteresis and capillary trapping characteristics of supercritical CO2/brine systems: An experimental study at reservoir conditions Akbarabadi, Morteza; Piri, Mohammad Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 52 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2012.06.014	journal	February 2013
Capillarity and wetting of carbon dioxide and brine during drainage in B erea sandstone at reservoir conditions Al‐Menhali, Ali; Niu, Ben; Krevor, Samuel Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR016947	journal	October 2015
Digital rock physics benchmarks—part II: Computing effective properties Andrä, Heiko; Combaret, Nicolas; Dvorkin, Jack Computers & Geosciences, Vol. 50 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2012.09.008	journal	January 2013
Smoothed particle hydrodynamics pore-scale simulations of unstable immiscible flow in porous media Bandara, U. C.; Tartakovsky, A. M.; Oostrom, M. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 62 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2013.09.014	journal	December 2013
Seismic properties of pore fluids Batzle, Michael; Wang, Zhijing GEOPHYSICS, Vol. 57, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1190/1.1443207	journal	November 1992
Displacement and mass transfer between saturated and unsaturated CO2–brine systems in sandstone Berg, S.; Oedai, S.; Ott, H. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2011.04.005	journal	January 2013
Real-time 3D imaging of Haines jumps in porous media flow Berg, S.; Ott, H.; Klapp, S. A. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221373110	journal	February 2013
Influence of wettability and permeability heterogeneity on miscible CO2 flooding efficiency Bikkina, Prem; Wan, Jiamin; Kim, Yongman Fuel, Vol. 166 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2015.10.090	journal	February 2016
A continuum method for modeling surface tension Brackbill, J. U.; Kothe, D. B.; Zemach, C. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 100, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(92)90240-Y	journal	June 1992
Supercritical CO 2 and brine displacement in geological carbon sequestration: Micromodel and pore network simulation studies Cao, Shuang Cindy; Dai, Sheng; Jung, Jongwon International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 44 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.11.026	journal	January 2016
Linking pressure and saturation through interfacial areas in porous media Cheng, J. -T. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 31, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL019282	journal	January 2004
Influence of wetting conditions on drainage in porous media: A microfluidic study Cottin, Christophe; Bodiguel, Hugues; Colin, Annie Physical Review E, Vol. 84, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.026311	journal	August 2011
Influence of Viscous, Gravitational, and Capillary Forces on DNAPL Saturation Dawson, Helen E.; Roberts, Paul V. Ground Water, Vol. 35, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.1997.tb00083.x	journal	March 1997
Influence of wettability on interfacial area during immiscible liquid invasion into a 3D self-affine rough fracture: Lattice Boltzmann simulations Dou, Zhi; Zhou, Zhifang; Sleep, B. E. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 61 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2013.08.007	journal	November 2013
Residual CO ₂ Trapping in Indiana Limestone El-Maghraby, Rehab M.; Blunt, Martin J. Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 47, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/es304166u	journal	August 2012
Direct numerical simulations of interface dynamics to link capillary pressure and total surface energy Ferrari, Andrea; Lunati, Ivan Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 57 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2013.03.005	journal	July 2013
Challenges in modeling unstable two-phase flow experiments in porous micromodels Ferrari, Andrea; Jimenez-Martinez, Joaquin; Borgne, Tanguy Le Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016384	journal	March 2015
Opportunities for Using Anthropogenic CO ₂ for Enhanced Oil Recovery and CO ₂ Storage Godec, Michael L.; Kuuskraa, Vello A.; Dipietro, Phil Energy & Fuels, Vol. 27, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1021/ef302040u	journal	March 2013
Roughness of wetting fluid invasion fronts in porous media He, Shanjin; Kahanda, Galathara L. M. K. S.; Wong, Po-zen Physical Review Letters, Vol. 69, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.69.3731	journal	December 1992
Benchmark numerical simulations of segmented two-phase flows in microchannels using the Volume of Fluid method Hoang, Duong A.; van Steijn, Volkert; Portela, Luis M. Computers & Fluids, Vol. 86 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compfluid.2013.06.024	journal	November 2013
Wettability Stabilizes Fluid Invasion into Porous Media via Nonlocal, Cooperative Pore Filling Holtzman, Ran; Segre, Enrico Physical Review Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.164501	journal	October 2015
Experimental and numerical study of two-phase flows in arrays of cylinders Horgue, Pierre; Augier, Frédéric; Duru, Paul Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 102 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2013.08.031	journal	October 2013
CO ₂ wettability of seal and reservoir rocks and the implications for carbon geo-sequestration Iglauer, Stefan; Pentland, C. H.; Busch, A. Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR015553	journal	January 2015
Impact of interfacial tension on residual CO ₂ clusters in porous sandstone Jiang, Fei; Tsuji, Takeshi Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016070	journal	March 2015
Numerical investigations on the effect of initial state CO 2 topology on capillary trapping efficiency Jiang, Fei; Tsuji, Takeshi International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 49 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.03.006	journal	June 2016
Estimation of three-phase relative permeability by simulating fluid dynamics directly on rock-microstructure images: ESTIMATION OF THREE-PHASE PERMEABILITY Jiang, F.; Tsuji, T. Water Resources Research, Vol. 53, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019098	journal	January 2017
Simulating drainage and imbibition experiments in a high-porosity micromodel using an unstructured pore network model: PORE NETWORK MODEL FOR MICROMODEL Joekar Niasar, V.; Hassanizadeh, S. M.; Pyrak-Nolte, L. J. Water Resources Research, Vol. 45, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2007WR006641	journal	February 2009
Wettability controls slow immiscible displacement through local interfacial instabilities Jung, Michael; Brinkmann, Martin; Seemann, Ralf Physical Review Fluids, Vol. 1, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.1.074202	journal	November 2016
Micromodel study of two-phase flow under transient conditions: Quantifying effects of specific interfacial area Karadimitriou, N. K.; Hassanizadeh, S. M.; Joekar-Niasar, V. Water Resources Research, Vol. 50, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR015388	journal	October 2014
A methodology for velocity field measurement in multiphase high‐pressure flow of CO ₂ and water in micromodels Kazemifar, Farzan; Blois, Gianluca; Kyritsis, Dimitrios C. Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016787	journal	April 2015
Dewetting of Silica Surfaces upon Reactions with Supercritical CO ₂ and Brine: Pore-Scale Studies in Micromodels Kim, Yongman; Wan, Jiamin; Kneafsey, Timothy J. Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 46, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/es204096w	journal	March 2012
Capillary trapping for geologic carbon dioxide storage – From pore scale physics to field scale implications Krevor, Samuel; Blunt, Martin J.; Benson, Sally M. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 40 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.04.006	journal	September 2015
Numerical models and experiments on immiscible displacements in porous media Lenormand, Roland; Touboul, Eric; Zarcone, Cesar Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 189 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112088000953	journal	April 1988
Hysteresis and interfacial energies in smooth-walled microfluidic channels: HYSTERESIS AND INTERFACIAL ENERGIES Liu, Yihong; Nolte, D. D.; Pyrak-Nolte, L. J. Water Resources Research, Vol. 47, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010WR009541	journal	January 2011
Pore-scale simulation of liquid CO2 displacement of water using a two-phase lattice Boltzmann model Liu, Haihu; Valocchi, Albert J.; Werth, Charles Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 73 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2014.07.010	journal	November 2014
Lattice Boltzmann modeling of contact angle and its hysteresis in two-phase flow with large viscosity difference Liu, Haihu; Ju, Yaping; Wang, Ningning Physical Review E, Vol. 92, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.033306	journal	September 2015
Interfacial jumps and pressure bursts during fluid displacement in interacting irregular capillaries Moebius, Franziska; Or, Dani Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 377, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2012.03.070	journal	July 2012
The impact of reservoir conditions on the residual trapping of carbon dioxide in B erea sandstone Niu, Ben; Al‐Menhali, Ali; Krevor, Samuel C. Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016441	journal	April 2015
Effects of Viscous and Capillary Forces on CO ₂ Enhanced Oil Recovery under Reservoir Conditions Nobakht, Morteza; Moghadam, Samane; Gu, Yongan Energy & Fuels, Vol. 21, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1021/ef700388a	journal	November 2007
Use of Carbon Dioxide in Enhanced Oil Recovery Orr, F. M.; Taber, J. J. Science, Vol. 224, Issue 4649 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.224.4649.563	journal	May 1984
From the Cover: Cozzarelli Prize Winner: Gas production in the Barnett Shale obeys a simple scaling theory Patzek, T. W.; Male, F.; Marder, M. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 49 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1313380110	journal	November 2013
Capillary pressure for the sand–CO2–water system under various pressure conditions. Application to CO2 sequestration Plug, W. -J.; Bruining, J. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 30, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2007.05.010	journal	November 2007
The effects of wettability and trapping on relationships between interfacial area, capillary pressure and saturation in porous media: A pore-scale network modeling approach Raeesi, Behrooz; Piri, Mohammad Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 376, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.07.060	journal	October 2009
Modelling two-phase flow in porous media at the pore scale using the volume-of-fluid method Raeini, Ali Q.; Blunt, Martin J.; Bijeljic, Branko Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 231, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2012.04.011	journal	July 2012
Modelling capillary trapping using finite-volume simulation of two-phase flow directly on micro-CT images Raeini, Ali Q.; Bijeljic, Branko; Blunt, Martin J. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 83 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.05.008	journal	September 2015
Particle velocimetry analysis of immiscible two-phase flow in micromodels Roman, Sophie; Soulaine, Cyprien; AlSaud, Moataz Abu Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 95 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.08.015	journal	September 2016
CT Scan Study of Immiscible Foam Flow in Porous Media for Enhancing Oil Recovery Simjoo, M.; Dong, Y.; Andrianov, A. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 52, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1021/ie300603v	journal	April 2013
Capillary Pressure and Mineral Wettability Influences on Reservoir CO2 Capacity Tokunaga, T. K.; Wan, J. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Vol. 77, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.2138/rmg.2013.77.14	journal	January 2013
Stabilizing Fluid-Fluid Displacements in Porous Media Through Wettability Alteration Trojer, Mathias; Szulczewski, Michael L.; Juanes, Ruben Physical Review Applied, Vol. 3, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.3.054008	journal	May 2015
Characterization of immiscible fluid displacement processes with various capillary numbers and viscosity ratios in 3D natural sandstone Tsuji, Takeshi; Jiang, Fei; Christensen, Kenneth T. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 95 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.03.005	journal	September 2016
Predictive pore-scale modeling of two-phase flow in mixed wet media: PREDICTIVE PORE-SCALE MODELING Valvatne, Per H.; Blunt, Martin J. Water Resources Research, Vol. 40, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1029/2003WR002627	journal	July 2004
Improved Glass Micromodel Methods for Studies of Flow and Transport in Fractured Porous Media Wan, Jiamin; Tokunaga, Tetsu K.; Tsang, Chin-Fu Water Resources Research, Vol. 32, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1029/96WR00755	journal	July 1996
Capillary Pressure–Saturation Relations for Supercritical CO ₂ and Brine in Limestone/Dolomite Sands: Implications for Geologic Carbon Sequestration in Carbonate Reservoirs Wang, Shibo; Tokunaga, Tetsu K. Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 49, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b00826	journal	June 2015
Experimental Study of Crossover from Capillary to Viscous Fingering for Supercritical CO ₂ –Water Displacement in a Homogeneous Pore Network Wang, Ying; Zhang, Changyong; Wei, Ning Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 47, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/es3014503	journal	June 2012
Flow in Porous Media: Permeability and Displacement Patterns Wong, Po-zen MRS Bulletin, Vol. 19, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1557/S0883769400036551	journal	May 1994
Effect of pore geometry and interfacial tension on water-oil displacement efficiency in oil-wet microfluidic porous media analogs Xu, Wei; Ok, Jeong Tae; Xiao, Feng Physics of Fluids, Vol. 26, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4894071	journal	September 2014
Lattice Boltzmann Simulations of Supercritical CO ₂ –Water Drainage Displacement in Porous Media: CO ₂ Saturation and Displacement Mechanism Yamabe, Hirotatsu; Tsuji, Takeshi; Liang, Yunfeng Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 49, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/es504510y	journal	December 2014
Pore-scale simulations of drainage in granular materials: Finite size effects and the representative elementary volume Yuan, Chao; Chareyre, Bruno; Darve, Félix Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 95 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.11.018	journal	September 2016
Liquid CO ₂ Displacement of Water in a Dual-Permeability Pore Network Micromodel Zhang, Changyong; Oostrom, Mart; Grate, Jay W. Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 45, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1021/es201858r	journal	September 2011
Influence of Viscous and Capillary Forces on Immiscible Fluid Displacement: Pore-Scale Experimental Study in a Water-Wet Micromodel Demonstrating Viscous and Capillary Fingering Zhang, Changyong; Oostrom, Mart; Wietsma, Thomas W. Energy & Fuels, Vol. 25, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1021/ef101732k	journal	August 2011
Wettability control on multiphase flow in patterned microfluidics Zhao, Benzhong; MacMinn, Christopher W.; Juanes, Ruben Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 37 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1603387113	journal	August 2016

Cited By (3)

Pore-scale characteristics of multiphase flow in heterogeneous porous media using the lattice Boltzmann method Bakhshian, Sahar; Hosseini, Seyyed A.; Shokri, Nima Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39741-x	journal	March 2019
Preferential Paths of Air-water Two-phase Flow in Porous Structures with Special Consideration of Channel Thickness Effects Liu, Jinhui; Ju, Yang; Zhang, Yingqi Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52569-9	journal	November 2019
Rapid Laser Manufacturing of Microfluidic Devices from Glass Substrates Wlodarczyk, Krystian; Carter, Richard; Jahanbakhsh, Amir Micromachines, Vol. 9, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9080409	journal	August 2018

Similar Records

Wettability impact on supercritical CO₂ capillary trapping: Pore-scale visualization and quantification

Journal Article · Thu Jul 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Water Resources Research · OSTI ID:1532217

Hu, Ran; Wan, Jiamin; Kim, Yongman; +1 more

Impacts of Pore Network-Scale Wettability Heterogeneity on Immiscible Fluid Displacement: A Micromodel Study

Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Water Resources Research · OSTI ID:1532217

Chang, Chun; Kneafsey, Timothy J.; Tokunaga, Tetsu K.; +2 more

Impacts of Mixed-Wettability on Brine Drainage and Supercritical CO₂ Storage Efficiency in a 2.5-D Heterogeneous Micromodel

Journal Article · Wed Apr 29 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Water Resources Research · OSTI ID:1532217

Chang, Chun; Kneafsey, Timothy J.; Wan, Jiamin; +2 more

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
wettability
drainage
micromodel experiment
pore-scale simulation
immiscible displacement

Title: Wettability effects on supercritical CO2–brine immiscible displacement during drainage: Pore-scale observation and 3D simulation

Citation Formats

References (61)

Cited By (3)

Similar Records

Related Subjects

Title: Wettability effects on supercritical CO₂–brine immiscible displacement during drainage: Pore-scale observation and 3D simulation