CO2 geological storage: Critical insights on plume dynamics and storage efficiency during long-term injection and post-injection periods

Zapata, Yuliana; Kristensen, Morten; Huerta, Nicolas J.; Brown, Christopher F.; Kabir, Sadia; Reza, Zulfiquar

doi:10.1016/j.jngse.2020.103542

CO₂ geological storage: Critical insights on plume dynamics and storage efficiency during long-term injection and post-injection periods

Journal Article · Thu Aug 20 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2020.103542· OSTI ID:1668763

Zapata, Yuliana ^[1]; Kristensen, Morten ^[2]; ^[3]; Brown, Christopher F. ^[3]; Kabir, Sadia ^[4]; Reza, Zulfiquar ^[1]

Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
Schlumberger, Cambridge, MA (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Univ. of Houston, TX (United States)

In the quest for net-zero greenhouse gas emission, CO₂ capture and storage technologies play a prominent role. Estimates suggest a potential of sequestering up to several thousand metric gigatons of CO₂. However, some of the main challenges in its development are an assessment of reservoir-specific storage capacities due to variabilities and heterogeneities in the underlying properties (structure, formations, facies, petrophysics, reservoir architecture, and others) and understanding the migration of CO₂ in the subsurface. How much CO₂ can be stored in a reservoir, and how quickly can it be injected? What will be the dominant storing (trapping) mechanisms? These questions, among others, remain as challenges to the commercial deployment of this technology. This article critically investigates CO₂ plume characteristics and determines the evolving contributions of different trapping mechanisms during a 100-year injection period. Here, simulation results on the CO₂ plume dynamics indicate that lateral propagation is much larger than vertical propagation. The ratio of average lateral to vertical dispersion ranged between 6.3 and 18.8 for the cases investigated. On average, for all the scenarios investigated, the free phase (mobile supercritical CO₂) is the dominant trapping mechanism (in terms of the amount of CO₂ stored) during the injection period, accounting up to 45% of the CO₂ injected. Both residual (30%) and solubility (25%) trapping storage ratios decline with time during injection, and no significant mineral trapping appeared during the 100-year injection period. However, the behavior of CaCO₃ suggests a predominant dissolution of CaCO₃, especially in the vicinity of the injection well.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1668763

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--151179

Journal Information:: Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, Journal Name: Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering Vol. 83; ISSN 1875-5100

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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