Impact of gas/liquid phase change of CO$_2$ during injection for sequestration

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Karimi, Mina, Cochran, Elizabeth, Massoudi, Mehrdad, Walkington, Noel, Pozzi, Matteo, Dayal, Kaushik
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866916800573210624
author Karimi, Mina
Cochran, Elizabeth
Massoudi, Mehrdad
Walkington, Noel
Pozzi, Matteo
Dayal, Kaushik
author_facet Karimi, Mina
Cochran, Elizabeth
Massoudi, Mehrdad
Walkington, Noel
Pozzi, Matteo
Dayal, Kaushik
contents CO$_2$ sequestration in deep saline formations is an effective and important process to control the rapid rise in CO$_2$ emissions. The process of injecting CO$_2$ requires reliable predictions of the stress in the formation and the fluid pressure distributions -- particularly since monitoring of the CO$_2$ migration is difficult -- to mitigate leakage, prevent induced seismicity, and analyze wellbore stability. A key aspect of CO$_2$ is the gas-liquid phase transition at the temperatures and pressures of relevance to leakage and sequestration, which has been recognized as being critical for accurate predictions but has been challenging to model without \textit{ad hoc} empiricisms. This paper presents a robust multiphase thermodynamics-based poromechanics model to capture the complex phase transition behavior of CO$_2$ and predict the stress and pressure distribution under super- and sub- critical conditions during the injection process. A finite element implementation of the model is applied to analyze the behavior of a multiphase porous system with CO$_2$ as it displaces the fluid brine phase. We find that if CO$_2$ undergoes a phase transition in the geologic reservoir, the spatial variation of the density is significantly affected, and the migration mobility of CO$_2$ decreases in the reservoir. A key feature of our approach is that we do not \textit{a priori} assume the location of the CO$_2$ gas/liquid interface -- or even if it occurs at all -- but rather, this is a prediction of the model, along with the spatial variation of the phase of CO$_2$ and the change of the saturation profile due to the phase change.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15996
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impact of gas/liquid phase change of CO$_2$ during injection for sequestration
Karimi, Mina
Cochran, Elizabeth
Massoudi, Mehrdad
Walkington, Noel
Pozzi, Matteo
Dayal, Kaushik
Geophysics
CO$_2$ sequestration in deep saline formations is an effective and important process to control the rapid rise in CO$_2$ emissions. The process of injecting CO$_2$ requires reliable predictions of the stress in the formation and the fluid pressure distributions -- particularly since monitoring of the CO$_2$ migration is difficult -- to mitigate leakage, prevent induced seismicity, and analyze wellbore stability. A key aspect of CO$_2$ is the gas-liquid phase transition at the temperatures and pressures of relevance to leakage and sequestration, which has been recognized as being critical for accurate predictions but has been challenging to model without \textit{ad hoc} empiricisms. This paper presents a robust multiphase thermodynamics-based poromechanics model to capture the complex phase transition behavior of CO$_2$ and predict the stress and pressure distribution under super- and sub- critical conditions during the injection process. A finite element implementation of the model is applied to analyze the behavior of a multiphase porous system with CO$_2$ as it displaces the fluid brine phase. We find that if CO$_2$ undergoes a phase transition in the geologic reservoir, the spatial variation of the density is significantly affected, and the migration mobility of CO$_2$ decreases in the reservoir. A key feature of our approach is that we do not \textit{a priori} assume the location of the CO$_2$ gas/liquid interface -- or even if it occurs at all -- but rather, this is a prediction of the model, along with the spatial variation of the phase of CO$_2$ and the change of the saturation profile due to the phase change.
title Impact of gas/liquid phase change of CO$_2$ during injection for sequestration
topic Geophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15996