A Microvisual Investigation of Viscously Unstable Displacement for CO2 Injection
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has been recognized as the major cause for global warming. Urgent need to reduce green house gas has lead to numerous researches in carbon storage and capture, or CO2 sequestration. Storage of CO2 in deep saline aquifers has received significant attention due to its large capacity and available sites. Understanding CO2 flooding mechanisms and microscopic reservoir events is necessary for predicting storage capacity and mitigation effect of CO2 injection. This research focuses on understanding unstable multiphase flow mechanisms that are relevant for CO2 injection in porous media. Specifically, the effect of favorable and unfavorable viscosity ratio, capillary number, and gravitational forces on the flow dynamics in CO2 injection processes is investigated. The experimental work employs analogous fluid pairs for drainage and imbibition experiments in silicon micromodels. The experimental data are analyzed through image analysis and high-resolution numerical simulation. Current macroscopic and pore-scale results both show a stable displacement under favorable viscosity and density conditions and the presence of fingering and a “sparkly” front under unfavorable viscosity condition. The image analysis results show a larger viscosity ratio leads to poor sweep efficiency for drainage experiments. The initial simulation results confirm the findings for stable drainage displacement. The comparison of finger pore lengths for unstable displacements with previous literature sources shows a consistency between the macroscopic observations and the pore-scale trends.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 2010 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gu, Jie |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Kovscek, Anthony R. |
| Advisor | Castanier, Louis |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Energy Resources Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Gu, Jie. (2010). A Microvisual Investigation of Viscously Unstable Displacement for CO2 Injection. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/gf696sy4945
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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