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Title: Long-term thermal effects on injectivity evolution during CO 2 storage

Journal Article · · International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area; Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona (Spain). Inst. of Environmental Assessment and Water Research; Associated Unit Hydrogeology Group (UPC-CSIC), Barcelona (Spain)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area; Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology, Zurich (Switzerland). Swiss Seismological Service
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is likely to reach the bottom of injection wells at a colder temperature than that of the storage formation, causing cooling of the rock. This cooling, together with overpressure, tends to open up fractures, which may enhance injectivity. Here, we investigate cooling effects on injectivity enhancement by modeling the In Salah CO 2 storage site and a theoretical, long-term injection case. We use stress-dependent permeability functions that predict an increase in permeability as the effective stress acting normal to fractures decreases. Normal effective stress can decrease either due to overpressure or cooling. We calibrate our In Salah model, which includes a fracture zone perpendicular to the well, obtaining a good fitting with the injection pressure measured at KB-502 and the rapid CO 2 breakthrough that occurred at the observation well KB-5 located 2 km away from the injection well. CO 2 preferentially advances through the fracture zone, which becomes two orders of magnitude more permeable than the rest of the reservoir. Nevertheless, the effect of cooling on the long-term injectivity enhancement is limited in pressure dominated storage sites, like at In Salah, because most of the permeability enhancement is due to overpressure. But, thermal effects enhance injectivity in cooling dominated storage sites, which may decrease the injection pressure by 20%, saving a significant amount of compression energy all over the duration of storage projects. Overall, our simulation results show that cooling has the potential to enhance injectivity in fractured reservoirs.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1379923
Journal Information:
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 64, Issue C; ISSN 1750-5836
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 34 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Natural fractures within Knox reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin: characterization and impact on poroelastic response of injection journal September 2019
The Influence of Coupled Thermomechanical Processes on the Pressure and Temperature due to Cold Water Injection into Multiple Fracture Zones in Deep Rock Formation journal January 2020
Geomechanical Response of Fractured Reservoirs journal September 2018
Influence of interphase mass transfer and diffusion processes on CO2-brine displacement in saline aquifers journal November 2019
Induced seismicity in geologic carbon storage journal January 2019
Potential of $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$CO2 based geothermal energy extraction from hot sedimentary and dry rock reservoirs, and enabling carbon geo-sequestration journal January 2020