We investigate the physics, chemistry, and techno-economics of CO2 storage underground

Our research includes exploring fundamental pore scale fluid dynamics, developing digital rocks analysis techniques, increasing the accuracy of field scale reservoir simulation, and evaluating the feasibility of scaling up CO2 storage to climate relevant scales.

Our Research Projects

Citation

BibTex format

@inproceedings{Zhou:2015,
author = {Zhou, Z and Krevor, S and Reynolds, C},
pages = {1141--1157},
title = {A simulation investigation into the influence of thermophysical fluid properties on CO<inf>2</inf> brine core flooding experiments},
year = {2015}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - CPAPER
AB - We used conventional numerical simulation of immiscible multiphase flow to reproduce laboratory observations of the CO2/Brine system. A model of homogeneous rock properties was QC'ed on Buckley-Leverett, gravity effect and capillary end effect. The natural rock heterogeneity in the core was modelled by capillary heterogeneity, and calibrated by fluid distribution observed during the experiment. The calibrated model was then used to produce synthetic relative permeability observables by changing thermophysical fluid properties, knowing what the intrinsic relative permeabilities are. It was discovered that a change in reservoir conditions and particularly CO2 viscosity can lead to changing the impact that a natural rock heterogeneity in the core has on the fluid distribution. We showed that viscous-pressuredrive determines the extent to which rock heterogeneity matters in a core flooding experiment and demonstrated that heterogeneity can lead to a deviation in observed relative permeability from its intrinsic value. Given CO2 viscosity changes much more dramatically with reservoir conditions than other fluids, the impact of reservoir conditions on relative permeability tests is apparently observed because the changing conditions increases or decreases the role of heterogeneity in the core. We therefore concluded that appropriate relative permeability observations require a homogeneous fluid distribution and thus flow rates should be used where possible to minimize the impact of heterogeneity.
AU - Zhou,Z
AU - Krevor,S
AU - Reynolds,C
EP - 1157
PY - 2015///
SP - 1141
TI - A simulation investigation into the influence of thermophysical fluid properties on CO<inf>2</inf> brine core flooding experiments
ER -