Factors Affecting CO₂ Storage Capacity and Efficiency with Water Withdrawal in Shallow Saline Aquifers

Abstract

Carbon sequestration in shallow aquifers can be facilitated by water withdrawal. The factors that optimize the injection/withdrawal balance to minimize potential environmental impacts have been studied, including reservoir size, well pattern, injection rate, reservoir heterogeneity, anisotropy ratio, and permeability sequence. The effects of these factors on CO2 storage capacity and efficiency were studied using a compositional simulator Computer Modeling Group-General Equation of State Model, which modeled features including residual gas trapping, CO2 solubility, and mineralization reactions. Two terms, storage efficiency and CO2 relative breakthrough time, were introduced to better describe the problem. The simulation results show that simultaneous water withdrawal during CO2 injection greatly improves CO2 storage capacity and efficiency. A certain degree of heterogeneity or anisotropy benefits CO2 storage. A high injection rate favors storage capacity, but reduces the storage efficiency and CO2 breakthrough time, which in turn limits the total amount of CO2 injected.

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Sponsor(s)

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Keywords and Phrases

CO2 sequestration; Reservoir heterogeneity; Shallow aquifer; Storage capacity; Storage efficiency; Water withdrawal; Anisotropy; Aquifers; Efficiency; Environmental impact; Equations of state; Hydrogeology; Petroleum reservoir engineering; Water injection; Carbon dioxide

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1866-6280

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2014

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