Rick Chalaturnyk

University of Alberta

Upscaling for geomechanical simulations of CCS (capacity, containment and injectivity)

In support of the current pace of CO₂ Storage Hub development in Alberta, the Alberta Government issues a guidance document on the monitoring, measurement and verification principles and objectives associated with these hubs. A significant focus in these guidance documents is the “identification of all potential adverse events, the assessment and quantification of the likelihood and potential consequences of their occurrences and their integration into risk assessment and management activities”. To achieve this outcome, significant challenges with upscaling of geomechanical properties suitable for large scale simulations of subsurface processes such as CCS remain. These challenges are associated with upscaling thermos-hydro-mechanical properties along with upscaling of lithology/facies heterogeneity. This presentation discusses many elements associated with this upscaling and outlines future challenges associated with predicting failure processes (for risk assessments) and associated permeability changes resulting from these failure processes.