Hydro-thermo-chemo-mechanical modeling of carbon dioxide injection in fluvial heterogeneous aquifers

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2022-03, Vol.431, p.133451, Article 133451
• Main Authors: Ershadnia, Reza, Wallace, Corey D., Hajirezaie, Sassan, Hosseini, Seyyed Abolfazl, Nguyen, Thanh N., Sturmer, Daniel Murray, Dai, Zhenxue, Reza Soltanian, Mohamad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Capillary pressure heterogeneity; CO2 sequestration; Geochemical reactions; Geomechanical effects; Permeability enhancement; Thermal effects
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2021.133451

•Thermal-hydrological-mechanical-chemical processes are modeled for a GCS project.•Effect of facies-dependent features on CO2 migration is studied.•The efficacy of different trapping mechanisms during a GCS project is investigated.•Hot spots for CO2 fate and transport in fluvial-type aquifers are found.•Excellent agreement is found between numerical simulations and field observations. Understanding geological sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) requires fully-coupled simulation of thermal-hydrological-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes within well-characterized subsurface heterogeneity. A CO2 injection pilot project was performed in the Cranfield site, Mississippi, USA, where subsurface heterogeneity reflects fluvial deposition. During the project, CO2 was injected through an injection well and was monitored using two observation wells. We incorporate high-resolution three-dimensional heterogeneity model of the site into multiphase and multi-component flow and transport models. We validate our models and evaluate how bottom-hole pressure (BHP) in injection well, CO2 breakthrough times at observation wells, and efficiency of trapping mechanisms (i.e., dissolution, snap-off trapping, mobile CO2) are controlled by (1) non-isothermal CO2 injection, (2) geochemical reactions, (3) capillary pressure heterogeneity, (4) geomechanical effects, and (5) permeability enhancement close to the injection well. Results suggest that neglecting thermal effects lowers BHP, shortens breakthrough times, overestimates dissolution, and underestimates snap-off trapping. The BHP remains unchanged, breakthrough times are overestimated, and solubility and snap-off trapping are underestimated when geochemical reactions are ignored. Ignoring capillary pressure heterogeneity results in underestimation of BHP and dissolution and overestimation of breakthrough times. Ignoring geomechanical process results in lower BHP, shorter breakthrough times, increased dissolution, and decreased snap-off trapping. Ignoring permeability enhancement results in underestimation of breakthrough times and solubility trapping, and overestimation of snap-off trapping. Our results have important practical implication for designing effective field scale experiments and numerical simulations of geological carbon sequestration. Other multiphase flow problems in which subsurface heterogeneities are the main controlling factor (e.g., hydrogen storage) may benefit from this work.