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

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)

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

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

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1532217

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1416040
OSTI ID: 1469957

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

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Related Subjects

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