Effect of Capillary Induced Flow on CO2 Residual Trapping

10 Pages Posted: 4 Apr 2019 Last revised: 27 Oct 2020

See all articles by Maartje Boon

Maartje Boon

Stanford University

Hailun Ni

Stanford University

Charlotte Garing

Stanford University - Department of Energy Resources Engineering

Sally Benson

Stanford University - Global Climate and Energy Project

Abstract

Residual trapping is one of the main mechanisms for immobilizing CO2 after the injection phase of a geological sequestration project. Residual trapping results from capillary forces at the pore scale which lead to snap-off and bypass of CO2. For heterogeneous systems, there is, in addition to the capillary potential at the pore scale, a capillary potential at the scale of the heterogeneity which will result in capillary induced flows and trapping. We investigate the impact of capillary induced flow on multiphase flow behavior and its implications for residual trapping of CO2 by performing experimental and numerical core-flood tests. Results show that the magnitude and spatial extent of the heterogeneity impact the local capillary forces and, therefore, the capillary pressure and saturation distribution. In certain cases, even in the capillary dominated regime, local capillary disequilibrium was observed, leading to capillary induced flow when the system relaxed. This work shows that for layered rock with small variations in permeability, laminations direction has minimal impact on the local capillary forces and does not effect the residual trapping potential. Further research is needed to investigate if lamination direction impacts the residual trapping potential in the case of layered rocks with larger variations in permeability.

Keywords: capillary induced flow; capillary heterogeneity; multiphase flow; CO2 sequestration

Suggested Citation

Boon, Maartje and Ni, Hailun and Garing, Charlotte and Benson, Sally, Effect of Capillary Induced Flow on CO2 Residual Trapping. 14th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Melbourne 21-26 October 2018 (GHGT-14) , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3365823 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3365823

Maartje Boon (Contact Author)

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Hailun Ni

Stanford University ( email )

Charlotte Garing

Stanford University - Department of Energy Resources Engineering

United States

Sally Benson

Stanford University - Global Climate and Energy Project

Jerry Yang & Akiko Yamazaki Environment & Energy B
473 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305
United States

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