Arne Skauge

Heriot-Watt University

CCS fluid flow modelling

Gas injection during Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is inherently an unstable displacement process, owing to the large viscosity contrast between the injected CO₂ and the resident brine (μw/μCO2 ≈ 55 at typical aquifer conditions).

This adverse viscosity ratio should likely result in viscous fingering of the injected CO₂.  The application of laboratory-derived relative permeability functions for the CO₂–water system was shown to be fundamentally inadequate for reproducing the fingering instabilities clearly observed in the by Van de Ven and Mumford* experiments. 

This presentation will summary the results of a PhD thesis soon to be defended by Saeid Ashtari Larki. The main topics to be presented are;

- Numerical simulation of viscous fingering in CO₂ storage: addressing the limitations of laboratory-derived relative permeabilities

- CO₂ solubility and its influence on fingering pattern development

- Generation of flow-representative Relative permeabilities from experimental data

- Lab to Field scaling analysis of Viscous, Gravitational and Capillary interactions

- Scaling theory of incompressible two-phase flow in porous media with tensor permeabilities

…..and more

*Van De Ven, C.J.C., and K.G.Mumford. 2019. Characterization of gasinjection flow patterns subject to gravityand viscous forces. Vadose Zone J. 18:190014. doi:10.2136/vzj2019.02.0014