Flow Regime Analysis of the Pressure Build-Up during CO 2 Injection in Saturated Porous Rock Formations

Ernestos Sarris and Elias Gravanis
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Ernestos Sarris: Department of Engineering, Oil and Gas Program, University of Nicosia, P.O. Box 24005, Nicosia 1700, Cyprus
Elias Gravanis: Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Cyprus University of Technology, P.O. Box 50329, Limassol 3603, Cyprus

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 15, 1-20

Abstract: In this work, we are concerned with the theoretical and numerical analysis of the pressure build-up on the cap of an aquifer during CO 2 injection in saturated porous rock formations in all flow regimes of the problem. The latter are specific regions of the parameter space of the plume flow, defined by the CO 2 -to-brine relative mobility and the buoyancy parameter (injection pressure to buoyancy pressure scale ratio). In addition to the known asymptotic self-similar solutions for low buoyancy, we introduce two novel ones for the high buoyancy regimes via power series solutions of asymptotic self-similarity equations. The explicit results for the peak value of pressure on the cap, which arises in the vicinity of the well, are derived and discussed for all flow regimes. The analytical results derived in this work are applied for the purpose of cap integrity considerations in six test cases of CO 2 geological storage from the PCOR partnership, most of which correspond to high buoyancy conditions. The validity of the self-similar solutions (late time asymptotics) is verified with CFD numerical simulations performed with the software Ansys-Fluent. The result is that the self-similar solutions and the associated pressure estimations are valid in typical injection durations of interest, even for early times.

Keywords: CO 2 sequestration; pressure build-up; multiphase flow; self-similar; flow regimes; porous media; caprock stability; gravity segregation; saline aquifer; VOF method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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