Formation Damage due to CO2 Sequestration in Saline Aquifers

• Main Author: Mohamed, Ibrahim Mohamed 1984-
• Other Authors: Nasr-El-Din, Hisham A, Falcone, Gioia, Schubert, Jerome, El-Halwagi, Mahmoud
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Formation Damage; CO2/Brine/Rock Chemical Reactions; CO2 injection Modeling; Coreflood; CO2 Sequestration; Carbonic acid
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/148153

Carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration is defined as the removal of gas that would be emitted into the atmosphere and its subsequent storage in a safe, sound place. CO2 sequestration in underground formations is currently being considered to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. However, a better understanding of the chemical and physical interactions between CO2, water, and formation rock is necessary before sequestration. These interactions can be evaluated by the change in mineral content in the water before and after injection, or from the change in well injectivity during CO2 injection. It may affect the permeability positively due to rock dissolution, or negatively due to precipitation. Several physical and chemical processes cover the CO2 injection operations; multiphase flow in porous media is represented by the flow of the brine and CO2, solute transportation is represented by CO2 dissolution in the brine forming weak carbonic acid, dissolution-deposition kinetics can be seen in the rock dissolution by the carbonic acid and the deposition of the reaction products, hydrodynamic instabilities due to displacement of less viscous brine with more viscous CO2 (viscous fingering), capillary effects and upward movement of CO2 due to gravity effect. The objective of the proposed work is to correlate the formation damage to the other variables, i.e. pressure, temperature, formation rock type, rock porosity, water composition, sulfates concentration in the water, CO2 volume injected, water volume injected, CO2 to water volumetric ratio, CO2 injection rate, and water injection rate. In order to achieve the proposed objective, lab experiments will be conducted on different rock types (carbonates, limestone and dolomite, and sandstone) under pressure and temperature that simulate the field conditions. CO2 will be used at the supercritical phase and different CO2-water-rock chemical interactions will be addressed. Quantitative analysis of the experimental results using a geochemical simulator (CMG-GEM) ...