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Title: Efficient parallel simulation of CO2 geologic sequestration insaline aquifers

Conference ·
OSTI ID:925539

An efficient parallel simulator for large-scale, long-termCO2 geologic sequestration in saline aquifers has been developed. Theparallel simulator is a three-dimensional, fully implicit model thatsolves large, sparse linear systems arising from discretization of thepartial differential equations for mass and energy balance in porous andfractured media. The simulator is based on the ECO2N module of the TOUGH2code and inherits all the process capabilities of the single-CPU TOUGH2code, including a comprehensive description of the thermodynamics andthermophysical properties of H2O-NaCl- CO2 mixtures, modeling singleand/or two-phase isothermal or non-isothermal flow processes, two-phasemixtures, fluid phases appearing or disappearing, as well as saltprecipitation or dissolution. The new parallel simulator uses MPI forparallel implementation, the METIS software package for simulation domainpartitioning, and the iterative parallel linear solver package Aztec forsolving linear equations by multiple processors. In addition, theparallel simulator has been implemented with an efficient communicationscheme. Test examples show that a linear or super-linear speedup can beobtained on Linux clusters as well as on supercomputers. Because of thesignificant improvement in both simulation time and memory requirement,the new simulator provides a powerful tool for tackling larger scale andmore complex problems than can be solved by single-CPU codes. Ahigh-resolution simulation example is presented that models buoyantconvection, induced by a small increase in brine density caused bydissolution of CO2.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
925539
Report Number(s):
LBNL-63316; R&D Project: G2W026; BnR: 600301020; TRN: US0803054
Resource Relation:
Conference: 2007 SPE Reservoir Simulation Symposium, Houston,TX, 26-28 February 2007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English