Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Abstract

Geologic storage of carbon dioxide is a promising technology for mitigating CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. In CO2 geologic storage, pressure distribution and CO2 plume migration are two major interests as they determine the injectivity and storage capacity. This study aims to explore how CO2 and brine transport in laterally open and closed systems with consideration of the presence of caprock and underlying seal. Three distinct flow regions were determined based on the vertical flux exchange of CO2 and native brine. Regions 1 and 2 showed CO2 flowing from the storage formation to adjacent seals with counter-flowing brine. The characteristics of these fluxes in Region 1 were governed by permeability change due to salt-precipitation whereas buoyancy force controlled the flux pattern in Region 2. Region 3 showed brine flowing from storage formation toward the over- and underlying seals, which enabled the displaced brine to escape from the storage formation and make room for CO2 to store as well as reducing the pressure build-up. In the multi-layered model, the counter-flowing brine in flow Region 1 resulted in localized salt-precipitation at the upper and lower boundary of storage formation. We assessed the bottom-hole pressure and CO2 mass in caprock with respect to reservoir size. While the formation thickness influenced the bottom-hole pressure in the early stage of injection, the horizontal extension of the reservoir was more influential to pressure build-up during the injection period, and to the stabilized pressure during the post-injection period.

Biography

Jeong Chan Kim has completed his PhD from Seoul National University. He is the Director of Deep Geoenvironment Research Center, KIGAM (Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources). He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a member of Geological Society of Korea.

Email: jckim@kigam.re.kr