Effect of the number of water alternating CO2 injection cycles on CO2 trapping capacity
Emad A. Al-Khdheeawi A B E , Stephanie Vialle C , Ahmed Barifcani A , Mohammad Sarmadivaleh A and Stefan Iglauer DA Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia.
B Petroleum Technology Department, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq.
C Department of Exploration Geophysics, Curtin University, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia.
D School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: e.al-khdheeawi@postgrad.curtin.edu.au
The APPEA Journal 59(1) 357-363 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18191
Submitted: 21 November 2018 Accepted: 7 January 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
The CO2 storage capacity is greatly affected by CO2 injection scenario – i.e. water alternating CO2 (WACO2) injection, intermittent injection, and continuous CO2 injection – and WACO2 injection strongly improves the CO2 trapping capacity. However, the impact of the number of WACO2 injection cycles on CO2 trapping capacity is not clearly understood. Thus, we developed a 3D reservoir model to simulate WACO2 injection in deep reservoirs testing different numbers of WACO2 injection cycles (i.e. one, two, and three), and the associated CO2 trapping capacity and CO2 plume migration were predicted. For all different WACO2 injection cycle scenarios, 5000 kton of CO2 and 5000 kton of water were injected at a depth of 2275 m and 2125 m respectively, during a 10-year injection period. Then, a 100-year CO2 storage period was simulated. Our simulation results clearly showed, after 100 years of storage, that the number of WACO2 cycles affected the vertical CO2 leakage and the capacity of trapped CO2. The results showed that increasing the number of WACO2 cycles decreased the vertical CO2 leakage. Furthermore, a higher number of WACO2 cycles increased residual trapping, and reduced solubility trapping. Thus, the number of WACO2 cycles significantly affected CO2 storage efficiency, and higher numbers of WACO2 cycles improved CO2 storage capacity.
Keywords: CO2 migration, CO2 storage, reservoir simulation, WACO2 cycles.
Emad Al-Khdheeawi is a PhD candidate at the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, Western Australia. He has BSc and MSc degrees in Petroleum Engineering. Emad’s research interests are in wettability, CO2 geo-storage, reservoir simulation, rock and fluid properties, EOR and multi-phase flow through porous media. |
Stephanie Vialle is a lecturer at the Western Australia School of Mines, Curtin University. She has an MSc in Fundamental and Applied Geochemistry and did her PhD in Rock Physics, both at IPG Paris and University Paris Diderot. Her interests lie in rock properties upscaling, in seismic signatures of geological processes, and in improved 4D seismic monitoring for CO2 storage. |
Ahmed Barifcani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering, at Curtin University since 2006. He has BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham UK. He is a Fellow and a Chartered Scientist of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE and CSci). He has many publications on flow assurance, LNG enhanced oil recovery, CO2 capture, and storage. He has over 30 years of industrial experience in operation design, engineering, construction, project management, research and development in the fields of oil refining, gas processing, petrochemicals, flow assurance, and CO2 capture. |
Mohammad Sarmadivaleh is a lecturer at the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, and leads the Petroleum Geo-mechanics Group. Mohammad received his PhD from Curtin University in numerical and experimental studies on hydraulic fracturing in 2012. Mohammad’s research interests include hydraulic fracturing, sanding, geo-mechanical reservoir modelling, and CO2 sequestration studies. He currently supervises 13 higher degree research students and participates in academic and industrial research projects. |
Stefan Iglauer is a Professor in the School of Engineering of Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia. His research interests are in CO2 geo-storage, wettability, and multi-phase flow through porous rock with a particular focus on atomic to pore-scale processes. Stefan has authored more than 130 technical publications; he holds a PhD in Material Science from Oxford Brookes University (UK) and an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Paderborn (Germany). |
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