Experimental Study on the Interplay between Different Brine Types/Concentrations and CO2 Injectivity for Effective CO2 Storage in Deep Saline Aquifers

Salt precipitation during CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers can have severe consequences on injectivity during carbon storage. Extensive studies have been carried out on CO2 solubility with individual or mixed salt solutions; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no substantial study to consider pressure decay rate as a function of CO2 solubility in brine, and the range of brine concentration for effective CO2 storage. This study presents an experimental core flooding of the Bentheimer sandstone sample under simulated reservoir conditions to examine the effect of four different types of brine at a various ranges of salt concentration (5 to 25 wt.%) on CO2 storage. Results indicate that porosity and permeability reduction, as well as salt precipitation, is higher in divalent brines. It is also found that, at 10 to 20 wt.% brine concentrations in both monovalent and divalent brines, a substantial volume of CO2 is sequestered, which indicates the optimum concentration ranges for storage purposes. Hence, the magnitude of CO2 injectivity impairment depends on both the concentration and type of salt species. The findings from this study are directly relevant to CO2 sequestration in deep saline aquifers as well as screening criteria for carbon storage with enhanced gas and oil recovery processes.

Characterization Method and Application of Heterogeneous Reservoir Based on Different Data Quantity

Deep saline aquifers have strong heterogeneity under natural conditions, which affects the migration of carbon dioxide (CO2) injection into the reservoir. How to characterize the heterogeneity of rock mass is of great significance to research the CO2 migration law during CO2 storage. A method is proposed to construct different heterogeneous models from the point of view of whether the amount of data is sufficient or not, the wholly heterogeneous model with sufficient data, the deterministic multifacies heterogeneous model which is simplified by lithofacies classification, and the random multifacies heterogeneous model which is derived from known formation based on transfer probability theory are established, respectively. Numerical simulation is carried out to study the migration law of CO2 injected into the above three heterogeneous models. The results show that the migration of CO2 in heterogeneous deep saline aquifers shows a significant fingering flow phenomenon and reflect the physical process in CO2 storage; the migration law of CO2 in the deterministic multifacies heterogeneous model is similar to that in the wholly heterogeneous model and indicates that the numerical simulation of simplifying the wholly heterogeneous structure to the lithofacies classification structure is suitable for simulating the CO2 storage process. The random multifacies heterogeneous model based on the transfer probability theory accords with the development law of sedimentary formation and can be used to evaluate the CO2 migration law in unknown heterogeneous formations. On the other hand, by comparing the dry-out effect of CO2 in different heterogeneous models, it is pointed out that the multifacies characterization method will weaken the influence due to the local homogenization of the model in small-scale research; it is necessary to refine the grid and subdivide the lithofacies of the local key area elements to eliminate the research error. The research results provide feasible references and suggestions for the heterogeneous modeling of the missing data area and the simplification of large-scale heterogeneous models.

Sensitivity Analysis Strategy to Assess the Salting-Out Problem during CO2 Geological Storage Process

The sensitivity analysis of the salting-out effect on well injectivity is a significant work in the research of geological storage of CO2 in deep saline aquifers, which is helpful in the selection of storage sites and the design of the injection strategy. We conduct a detailed sensitivity analysis about the salting-out process using the local sensitivity method and two global sensitivity methods. Sensitivity coefficients showed that brine salinity (XNaCl) has the highest sensitivity and interaction effect, the CO2 injection rate (QCO2) has a greater influence in the early stage of the salting-out process and a smaller influence in the end stage, and the other three parameters (empirical parameters related to the pore distribution m, the liquid residual saturation in the relative permeability function Splr, and the liquid residual saturation in the capillary pressure function Sclr) have a smaller sensitivity. This paper also analyzes the calculation amount of different sensitivity methods and suitable ways of obtaining the sensitivity coefficient and reveals the following. (1) The sensitivity coefficient changes dynamically with time, if only the sensitivity of the final state is taken into account on a long-time physical process, and some sensitive parameters during the process may be neglected. (2) The selection of the sample size should be based on the convergence of multiple calculations, and the results of the empirical calculation are uncertain. (3) The calculation of Sobol sensitivity is complicated, the results calculated by surrogate model depend on whether the sample is representative enough; on the other hand, it is feasible to use Sti-Si approximation to characterize the second-order sensitivity to reduce the computation. The research results not only reveal the sensitivity of the parameters related to the injection well salting-out problem during CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers but also guide the calculation of global sensitivity analysis with a similar physical process.