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Carbon‐dioxide storage and phase transitions: on the numerical modelling of injection and leakage
Author(s) -
Häberle Kai,
Ehlers Wolfgang
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
pamm
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1617-7061
DOI - 10.1002/pamm.201310093
Subject(s) - porous medium , leakage (economics) , supercritical fluid , mechanics , materials science , petroleum engineering , porosity , carbon dioxide , environmental science , thermodynamics , composite material , chemistry , geology , physics , organic chemistry , economics , macroeconomics
The injection of supercritical CO 2 into deep saline aquifers is regarded as one possible alternative to lessen the impact of emitted CO 2 on the greenhouse effect. During injection, a great variety of thermodynamical and mechanical changes of both the fluid phases and the porous solid matrix can be expected. The prediction of these processes is crucial to prevent from critical incidents during CO 2 injection, such as leakage of CO 2 or contamination of drinking water. For simulation purpose, a macroscopic, fully coupled description of multi‐phasic flow inside a deformable porous medium based on the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) is generated. Appropriate constitutive relations are applied to account for changes in the fluid properties of both the saline water and CO 2 during injection and leakage. Furthermore, an elasto‐plastic description of solid deformations of the porous matrix is included. The model is tested based on a benchmark problem. Therein, the leakage of CO 2 through an abandoned well after injection is investigated. The fully coupled approach between fluid flow and solid deformation allows additional results to be gained from the simulation. Quantification of the leakage rate through the abandoned well and localisation of phase‐change events are addressed to calibrate the presented model. (© 2013 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)