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Improving our understanding of fluid transport in rocks – CO2 sequestration
Tim SendenDepartment of Applied MathematicsResearch School of Physics and Engineering
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• Underground storage of CO2 has been proposed as a means of mitigating climate change through ghg emissions.
• Several major challenges to address– Volume of CO2 that can be stored within a given
geological formation
– Proximity to CO2 source (powerplant, gas field)
– Long term storage security (e.g. leakage rate must be less than 0.01% per year)
Introduction
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• CO2-rock interactions are a source of uncertainty in assessment of CO2 storage viability– Change injectivity (porosity, permeability etc)– May alter seal rock integrity– Mineral trapping / contaminant liberation
… but supercritical CO2 is an unusual beast!!
Facts: Above 31°C and 73 atm (not uncommon in reservoirs/aquifers);• ½ as dense as water, and 1/10th as viscous but flows like a liquid.• while it does not mix with water is does react to make the water acidic• it dissolves in hydrocarbons.
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• Saline aquifer
• Sleipner (Norway)
• Globally ubiquitous
• Need to ensure security to avoid groundwater contamination (true for any lithology)
• Mineral trapping small volumetrically but potentially important (changes to flow properties)
Image source: Statoil
So how to study this troublesome fluid in microscopic pores within rock?
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The X-ray micro-Tomography Facility Micro-focus
X-ray source
Rockspecimen
Double helical trajectory means very high fidelity data from micron to centimeter scale
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Physical Parameters Reservoir DescriptorsElectrical Conductivity Oil SaturationDielectric Permittivity Water SaturationNeutron Gas SaturationBorehole Pressure PorositySound Velocity PermeabilityNMR ResponseGamma-ray x-sectionCapillary Pressure
How does fluid permeability correlate to other observables ?
We must manage our hydrocarbon resources efficiently
Instead of a single data point we can extract 100’s from a single core
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1 mm3 sandstone showing simulated flow lines
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Triaxial cell•8 – 25 mm cores•Beryllium cell•Axial strain < 1000 atm•Confining pressure < 100 atm•No creep over 8 hr•Designed for scCO2
at present using analogue fluids
Simulation
Experiment
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Mardie Green Sand – Barrow Is, WA
Courtesy of Rowan Romeyn (Hons. student).
Native state After exposure to CO2 equivalent
Using analogue fluids
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ANU/UNSW spin-off
• Christoph Arns **• Tomaso Aste• Holger Averdunk• Gareth Crook• Andrew Fogden• Abid Ghous• Stephen Hyde• Anthony Jones• Alexandre Kabla
* VizLab ANUSF** UNSW
• Vanessa Robins• Rowan Romeyn• Mohammad Sadaatfar• Arthur Sakellariou• Tim Sawkins• Adrian Sheppard• Rob Sok• Michael Turner• Trond Varslot• Paul Veldkamp
The Digicore Consortium has included; Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, Total, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Abu Dhabi Onshore, Maersk, Petronas, PetroBras, Japan Oil & Gas, ONGC (India), BHP, BG, Conoco Philips, FEI, Digitalcore
• Andrew Kingston• Munish Kumar• Mark Knackstedt• Shane Latham• Evgenia Lebedeva• Ajay Limaye *• Jill Middleton• Glenn Myers• Val Pinczewski **
Since 2000
Since 2006
Since 2009
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Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research and Development(ANLEC)
In partnership with Digitalcore and ANU received a multi-million dollar grant to develop methods to investigate CO2 – rock interactions in Australian aquifers. 3 years.
Building an open access data repository, visualisation and simulation platform for tomographic data
2011