Experimentation

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CO2/Brine two-phase flow (Tsinghua)

The complex two-phase flow phenomena in porous rocks are experimentally investigated using a purposely-built supercritical CO2 test facility at Tsinghua operating at conditions typical of deep saline aquifers. Custom-built MRI is used to produce images of the CO2 migration online during experiment.

Porous media made of sintered glass beads of constant diameter are first used so that a well-described geometry is available to facilitate the development of theoretical understanding and validation of computer models. This is followed by experiments using rock samples to generate data of direct relevance to saline aquifers.

CO2/Brine two-phase flow (Tsinghua)

Mineral-fluid interactions (Leeds)

Mineral-fluid interactions will be investigated experimentally and computationally in order to evaluate their effects on the solubility of CO2 in formation waters and brines, and the rates at which such effects take place.

Since the imposition of an enhanced CO2 pressure on formation waters in contact with minerals leads to irreversible reactions which potentially lead to the reaction of a large proportion of the reservoir mineralogy, and stabilises CO2 as dissolved bicarbonate in the process, it is important to understand the time scale over which such reactions may continue.

Mineral-fluid interactions (Leeds)
CT Scan is used to study the mineral-rock interactions.
Mineral-fluid interactions (Leeds)
Outflow fluid chemistry (a); transient permeability and pH (b) and permeability change with porosity (c).

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