High-Speed Quantification of Pore-Scale Multiphase Flow of Water and Supercritical CO2 in 2-D Heterogeneous Porous Micromodels: Flow Regimes and Interface Dynamics
Abstract
The pore-scale flow of CO2 and water in 2-D heterogeneous porous micromodels over a Ca range of nearly three orders of magnitude was explored experimentally. The porous geometry is a close reprint of real sandstone, and the experiments were performed under reservoir-relevant conditions (i.e., 8 MPa and 21°C), thus ensuring relevance to practical CO2 operations. High-speed fluorescent microscopy and image processing were employed to achieve temporally and spatially resolved data, providing a unique view of the dynamics underlying this multiphase flow scenario. Under conditions relevant to CO2 sequestration, final CO2 saturation was found to decrease and increase logarithmically with Ca within the capillary and viscous-fingering regimes, respectively, with a minimum occurring during regime crossover. Specific interfacial length generally scales linearly with CO2 saturation, with higher slopes noted at high Ca due to stronger viscous and inertial forces, as supported by direct pore-scale observations. Additionally, statistical analysis of the interfacial movements revealed that pore-scale events are controlled by their intrinsic dynamics at low Ca, but overrun by the bulk flow at high Ca. During postfront flow, while permeability is typically correlated with total CO2 saturation in the porous domain (regardless of its mobility), the saturation of active CO2 pathways in themore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States); Kyushu Univ., Fukuoka (Japan). International Inst. for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER)
- Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
- California State Univ. (CalState), Sacramento, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Geologic Storage of CO2 (GSCO2); Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1767491
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1510551
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0012504
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Water Resources Research
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 55; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0043-1397
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 42 ENGINEERING; defects; mechanical behavior; carbon sequestration; mesostructured materials; pore-scale flow; water and liquid CO2; micro-PIV; geologic CO2 sequestration
Citation Formats
Li, Yaofa, Blois, Gianluca, Kazemifar, Farzan, and Christensen, Kenneth T. High-Speed Quantification of Pore-Scale Multiphase Flow of Water and Supercritical CO2 in 2-D Heterogeneous Porous Micromodels: Flow Regimes and Interface Dynamics. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1029/2018WR024635.
Li, Yaofa, Blois, Gianluca, Kazemifar, Farzan, & Christensen, Kenneth T. High-Speed Quantification of Pore-Scale Multiphase Flow of Water and Supercritical CO2 in 2-D Heterogeneous Porous Micromodels: Flow Regimes and Interface Dynamics. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024635
Li, Yaofa, Blois, Gianluca, Kazemifar, Farzan, and Christensen, Kenneth T. Mon .
"High-Speed Quantification of Pore-Scale Multiphase Flow of Water and Supercritical CO2 in 2-D Heterogeneous Porous Micromodels: Flow Regimes and Interface Dynamics". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024635. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1767491.
@article{osti_1767491,
title = {High-Speed Quantification of Pore-Scale Multiphase Flow of Water and Supercritical CO2 in 2-D Heterogeneous Porous Micromodels: Flow Regimes and Interface Dynamics},
author = {Li, Yaofa and Blois, Gianluca and Kazemifar, Farzan and Christensen, Kenneth T.},
abstractNote = {The pore-scale flow of CO2 and water in 2-D heterogeneous porous micromodels over a Ca range of nearly three orders of magnitude was explored experimentally. The porous geometry is a close reprint of real sandstone, and the experiments were performed under reservoir-relevant conditions (i.e., 8 MPa and 21°C), thus ensuring relevance to practical CO2 operations. High-speed fluorescent microscopy and image processing were employed to achieve temporally and spatially resolved data, providing a unique view of the dynamics underlying this multiphase flow scenario. Under conditions relevant to CO2 sequestration, final CO2 saturation was found to decrease and increase logarithmically with Ca within the capillary and viscous-fingering regimes, respectively, with a minimum occurring during regime crossover. Specific interfacial length generally scales linearly with CO2 saturation, with higher slopes noted at high Ca due to stronger viscous and inertial forces, as supported by direct pore-scale observations. Additionally, statistical analysis of the interfacial movements revealed that pore-scale events are controlled by their intrinsic dynamics at low Ca, but overrun by the bulk flow at high Ca. During postfront flow, while permeability is typically correlated with total CO2 saturation in the porous domain (regardless of its mobility), the saturation of active CO2 pathways in the current study correlated very well with permeability. This alternate approach to characterize relative permeability could serve to mitigate hysteresis in relative permeability curves. Taken together, these results provide unique insights that address inconsistent observations in the literature and previously unanswered questions about the underlying flow dynamics of this important multiphase flow scenario.},
doi = {10.1029/2018WR024635},
journal = {Water Resources Research},
number = 5,
volume = 55,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Mon Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
Web of Science
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