Abstract
Recently, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) with enhanced oil recovery (EOR) have gained a significant traction in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Information on pore-scale CO2 fluid behavior is vital for efficient geo-sequestration and EOR. This study scrutinizes the behavior of supercritical CO2 (sc-CO2) under different reservoir temperature and pressure conditions through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, applying it to light and heavy crude oil reservoirs. The effects of reservoir pressure (20 MPa and 40 MPa), reservoir temperature (323 K and 353 K), injection velocities (0.005 m/s, 0.001 m/s, and 0.0005 m/s), and in situ oil properties (835.3 kg/m3 and 984 kg/m3) have been considered as control variables. This study couples the Helmholtz free energy equation (equation of state) to consider the changes in physical properties of sc-CO2 owing to variations in reservoir pressure and temperature conditions. It has been found that the sc-CO2 sequestration is more efficient in the case of light oil than heavy oil reservoirs. Notably, an increase in temperature and pressure does not affect the trend of sc-CO2 breakthrough or oil recovery in the case of a reservoir bearing light oil. For heavy oil reservoirs with high pressures, sc-CO2 sequestration or oil recovery was higher due to the significant increase in density and viscosity of sc-CO2. Quantitative analysis showed that the stabilizing factor (ε) appreciably varies for light oil at low velocities while higher sensitivity was displayed for heavy oil at high velocities.
Graphical abstract
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and materials
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
References
Abdoulghafour H, Sarmadivaleh M, Hauge LP, Fernø M, Iglauer S (2020) Capillary pressure characteristics of CO2-brine-sandstone systems. Int J Greenh Gas Control 94:102876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2019.102876
Ahmadi MA, Pouladi B, Barghi T (2016) Numerical modeling of CO2 injection scenarios in petroleum reservoirs: application to CO2 sequestration and EOR. J Nat Gas Sci Eng 30:38–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2016.01.038
Alvarado V, Eduardo M (2010) ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY Field Planning and Development. Gulf Professional Publishing
Al-Zaidi E, Fan X, Edlmann K (2018) Supercritical CO2 behaviour during water displacement in a sandstone core sample. Int J Greenh Gas Control 79:200–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2018.11.005
ANSYS (2009) Heat transfer theory. ANSYS Inc. https://www.afs.enea.it/project/neptunius/docs/fluent/html/th/node107.htm. Accessed 15 Apr 2022
Azzolina NA, Peck WD, Hamling JA, Gorecki CD, Ayash SC, Doll TE, Nakles DV, Melzer LS (2016) How green is my oil? A detailed look at greenhouse gas accounting for CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) sites. Int J Greenh Gas Control 51:369–379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.06.008
Bachu S (2000) Sequestration of CO2 in geological media: Criteria and approach for site selection in response to climate change. Energy Convers Manag 41:953–970. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-8904(99)00149-1
Behera US, Sangwai JS (2020) Synergistic effect of brine system containing mixed monovalent (NaCl, KCl) and divalent (MgCl2, MgSO4) salts on the interfacial tension of pure hydrocarbon-brine system relevant for low salinity water flooding. Energy Fuel 34:4201–4212. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b04525
Brackbill JU, Kothe DB, Zemach C (1992) A continuum method for modeling surface tension. J Comput Phys 100:335–354. https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(92)90240-Y
Carbon dioxide - gas encyclopedia air liquide | air liquide (n.d.) [WWW document]
Choi HS, Park HC, Huh C, Kang SG (2011) Numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer of supercritical CO2 in micro-porous media. Energy Procedia 4:3786–3793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.313
Clemens T, Tsikouris K, Buchgraber M, Castanier L, Kovscek A (2013) Pore-scale evaluation of polymers displacing viscous oil-computational- fluid-dynamics simulation of micromodel experiments. SPE Reserv Eval Eng 16:144–154. https://doi.org/10.2118/154169-PA
Connolly PRJ, Vogt SJ, Iglauer S, May EF, Johns ML (2017) Capillary trapping quantification in sandstones using NMR relaxometry. Water Resour Res 53:7917–7932. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR020829
El-hoshoudy AN, Desouky S (2018) CO2 miscible flooding for enhanced oil recovery. In: Carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. IntechOpen, pp 79–93. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79082
Enick RM, Olsen D, Ammer J, Schuller W (2012) Mobility and conformance control for CO2 EOR via thickeners, foams, and gels - a literature review of 40 years of research and pilot tests. SPE - DOE Improv. Oil Recover Symp Proc 2:910–921. https://doi.org/10.2118/154122-ms
Fanchi JR (2010) Reservoir simulation. In: In: Integrated reservoir asset management. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 223–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-382088-4.00013-X
Gajbhiye R (2020) Effect of CO2/N2 mixture composition on interfacial tension of crude oil. ACS Omega 5:27944–27952. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c03326
Gaspar Ravagnani ATFS, Ligero EL, Suslick SB (2009) CO2 sequestration through enhanced oil recovery in a mature oil field. J Pet Sci Eng 65:129–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2008.12.015
Gharibshahi R, Jafari A, Haghtalab A, Karambeigi MS (2015) Application of CFD to evaluate the pore morphology effect on nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery. RSC Adv 5:28938–28949. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4ra15452e
Gharibshahi R, Jafari A, Ahmadi H (2019) CFD investigation of enhanced extra-heavy oil recovery using metallic nanoparticles/steam injection in a micromodel with random pore distribution. J Pet Sci Eng 174:374–383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2018.10.051
Green DW, Willhite GP (1998) Enhanced oil recovery, SPE textbo. Richardson, TX: Henry L. Doherty Memorial Fund of AIME, Society of Petroleum Engineers
Guo F, Chen B (2009) Numerical study on taylor bubble formation in a micro-channel t-junction using vof method. Microgr Sci Technol 21:51–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-009-9146-4
Guo Y, Zhang L, Zhu G, Yao J, Sun H, Song W, Yang Y, Zhao J (2019) A pore-scale investigation of residual oil distributions and enhanced oil recovery methods. Energies 12:3732. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12193732
Hargreaves DM, Morvan HP, Wright NG (2007) Validation of the volume of fluid method for free surface calculation: the broad-crested weir. Eng Appl Comput Fluid Mech 1:136–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/19942060.2007.11015188
Hashemi Fath A, Pouranfard AR (2014) Evaluation of miscible and immiscible CO2 injection in one of the Iranian oil fields. Egypt J Pet 23:255–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2014.08.002
He D, Jiang P, Lun Z, Liu X, Xu R (2019) Pore scale CFD simulation of supercritical carbon dioxide drainage process in porous media saturated with water. Energy Sources. Part A Recover Util Environ Eff 41:1791–1799. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2018.1549155
Hill LB, Li X, Wei N (2020) CO2-EOR in China: a comparative review. Int J Greenh Gas Control 103:103173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103173
Hirt C, Nichols B (1981) Volume of fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries. J Comput Phys 39:201–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(81)90145-5
Huppert HE, Neufeld JA (2014) The fluid mechanics of carbon dioxide sequestration. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 46:255–272. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-fluid-011212-140627
Iglauer S, Paluszny A, Pentland CH, Blunt MJ (2011) Residual CO2 imaged with X-ray micro-tomography. Geophys Res Lett 38:n/a. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL049680
Iglauer S, Rahman T, Sarmadivaleh M, Al-Hinai A, Fernø MA, Lebedev M (2016) Influence of wettability on residual gas trapping and enhanced oil recovery in three-phase flow: a pore-scale analysis by use of microcomputed tomography. SPE J 21:1916–1929. https://doi.org/10.2118/179727-PA
Iglauer S, Paluszny A, Rahman T, Zhang Y, Wülling W, Lebedev M (2019) Residual trapping of CO2 in an oil-filled, oil-wet sandstone core: results of three-phase pore-scale imaging. Geophys Res Lett 46:11146–11154. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083401
IPCC (2006) Carbon dioxide capture and storage: special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Jeong W, Seong J (2014) Comparison of effects on technical variances of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software based on finite element and finite volume methods. Int J Mech Sci 78:19–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2013.10.017
Jha NK, Lebedev M, Iglauer S, Sangwai JS, Sarmadivaleh M (2020) In situ wettability investigation of aging of sandstone surface in alkane via X-ray microtomography. Energies 13:11–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13215594
Kakati A, Kumar G, Sangwai JS (2020) Low salinity polymer flooding: effect on polymer rheology, injectivity, retention, and oil recovery efficiency. Energy Fuel 34:5715–5732. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00393
Khalde CM, Samad A, Sangwai JS (2019) Computational and experimental study of sand entrapment in a hydrocyclone during desanding operations in oil fields: consequences for leakage and separation efficiency. SPE Prod Oper 34:520–535. https://doi.org/10.2118/195693-PA
Krishna R, Urseanu MI, van Baten JM, Ellenberger J (1999) Wall effects on the rise of single gas bubbles in liquids. Int Commun Heat Mass Transf 26:781–790. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0735-1933(99)00066-4
Kumar G, Kakati A, Mani E, Sangwai JS (2020) Stability of nanoparticle stabilized oil-in-water Pickering emulsion under high pressure and high temperature conditions: comparison with surfactant stabilized oil-in-water emulsion. J Dispers Sci Technol 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2020.1730888
Kuuskraa VA, Van Leewen T, Wallace M (2011) Improving domestic energy security and lowering CO2 emissions with “Next Generation” CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR). Dep Energy’s OSTIIGOV. https://doi.org/10.2172/1503260
Li X-B, Li F-C, Kinoshita H, Oishi M, Oshima M (2010) Formation of uniform plugs and monodispersed droplets for viscoelastic fluid flow in microchannels. In: In: Earth and Space 2010. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, pp 2207–2216. https://doi.org/10.1061/41096(366)203
Li L, Yao J, Li Y, Wu M, Zhang L (2016) Pressure-transient analysis of CO2 flooding based on a compositional method. J Nat Gas Sci Eng 33:30–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2016.04.062
Li X, Li G, Wang H, Tian S, Song X, Lu P, Wang M (2017) A unified model for wellbore flow and heat transfer in pure CO2 injection for geological sequestration, EOR and fracturing operations. Int J Greenh Gas Control 57:102–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.11.030
Li P, Yi L, Liu X, Hu G, Lu J, Zhou D, Hovorka S, Liang X (2019) Screening and simulation of offshore CO2-EOR and storage: a case study for the HZ21-1 oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, Northern South China Sea. Int J Greenh Gas Control 86:66–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2019.04.015
Liu J, Sun L, Li Z, Wu X (2019) Experimental study on reducing CO2–oil minimum miscibility pressure with hydrocarbon agents. Energies 12:1975. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12101975
Lv M, Wang S (2015) Pore-scale modeling of a water/oil two-phase flow in hot water flooding for enhanced oil recovery. RSC Adv 5:85373–85382. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ra12136a
Marchetti C (1977) On geoengineering and the CO2 problem. Clim Chang 1:59–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00162777
Markewitz P, Kuckshinrichs W, Leitner W, Linssen J, Zapp P, Bongartz R, Schreiber A, Müller TE (2012) Worldwide innovations in the development of carbon capture technologies and the utilization of CO2. Energy Environ Sci 5:7281–7305. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2ee03403d
Martin DF, Taber JJ (1992) Carbon dioxide flooding. J Pet Technol 44:396–400. https://doi.org/10.2118/23564-PA
Medhi S, Chowdhury S, Bhatt N, Gupta DK, Rana S, Sangwai JS (2020a) Analysis of high performing graphene oxide nanosheets based non-damaging drilling fluids through rheological measurements and CFD studies. Powder Technol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2020.08.053
Medhi S, Chowdhury S, Kumar A, Gupta DK, Aswal Z, Sangwai JS (2020b) Zirconium oxide nanoparticle as an effective additive for non-damaging drilling fluid: a study through rheology and computational fluid dynamics investigation. J Pet Sci Eng 187:106826. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106826
Mendelson HD (1967) The prediction of bubble terminal velocities from wave theory. AICHE J 13:250–253. https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.690130213
Molina-Aiz FD, Fatnassi H, Boulard T, Roy JC, Valera DL (2010) Comparison of finite element and finite volume methods for simulation of natural ventilation in greenhouses. Comput Electron Agric 72:69–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2010.03.002
Moukalled F, Mangani L, Darwish M (2016) The finite volume method in computational fluid dynamics: fluid mechanics and its applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16874-6_21
Nikolai P, Rabiyat B, Aslan A, Ilmutdin A (2019) Supercritical CO2: properties and technological applications - a review. J Therm Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-019-1118-4
Ning Y, Jin B, Liang Y, Qin G (2019) Pore-scale modeling and simulation in shale gas formations. In: In: Petrophysical characterization and fluids transport in unconventional reservoirs. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 217–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816698-7.00011-5
Nwidee LN, Theophilus S, Barifcani A, Sarmadivaleh M, Iglauer S (2016) EOR processes, opportunities and technological advancements. In: Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (cEOR) - a practical overview. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/64828
Peach J, Eastoe J (2014) Supercritical carbon dioxide: a solvent like no other. Beilstein J Org Chem 10:1878–1895. https://doi.org/10.3762/bjoc.10.196
Pipich V, Schwahn D (2020) Polymorphic phase transition in liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide. Sci Rep 10:11861. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68451-y
Prüss J, Simonett G (2010) On the two-phase Navier-Stokes equations with surface tension. Interfaces Free Bound 12:311–345. https://doi.org/10.4171/IFB/237
Rutqvist J (2012) The geomechanics of CO2 storage in deep sedimentary formations. Geotech Geol Eng 30:525–551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-011-9491-0
Safi R, Agarwal RK, Banerjee S (2016) Numerical simulation and optimization of CO2 utilization for enhanced oil recovery from depleted reservoirs. Chem Eng Sci 144:30–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2016.01.021
Sagir M, Mushtaq M, Tahir MS, Tahir MB, Ullah S, Abbas N, Pervaiz M (2018) CO2 capture, storage, and enhanced oil recovery applications. In: In: Encyclopedia of renewable and sustainable materials. Elsevier, Netherlands, pp 52–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803581-8.10360-1
Sakthipriya N, Doble M, Sangwai JS (2016) Influence of thermophilic Bacillus subtilis YB7 on the biodegradation of long chain paraffinic hydrocarbons (C16H34 to C36H74). RSC Adv 6:82541–82552. https://doi.org/10.1039/C6RA18774A
Seetharaman GR, Jadhav RM, Sangwai JS (2020) Effect of monovalent and divalent alkali [NaOH and Ca(OH)2] on the interfacial tension of pure hydrocarbon-water systems relevant for enhanced oil recovery. J Pet Sci Eng 197:107892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2020.107892
Sharma SS (2011) Determinants of carbon dioxide emissions: empirical evidence from 69 countries. Appl Energy 88:376–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.07.022
Sharma T, Iglauer S, Sangwai JS (2016) Silica nanofluids in an oilfield polymer polyacrylamide: interfacial properties, wettability alteration, and applications for chemical enhanced oil recovery. Ind Eng Chem Res 55:12387–12397. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.6b03299
Span R, Wagner W (1996) A new equation of state for carbon dioxide covering the fluid region from the triple‐point temperature to 1100 K at pressures up to 800 MPa. J Phys Chem Ref Data 25:1509–1596. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.555991, https://doi.org/10.5772/64828
Tunio SQ, Tunio AH, Ghirano NA, El Adawy ZM (2011) Comparison of different enhanced oil recovery techniques for better oil productivity. Int J Appl Sci Technol 1:143–153
van der Meer LGHB, Hofstee C, Orlic B (2009) The fluid flow consequences of CO2 migration from 1000 to 600 metres upon passing the critical conditions of CO2. Energy Procedia 1:3213–3220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2009.02.105
Viscosity of crude oil – viscosity table and viscosity chart. (n.d.) Anton Paar Wiki [WWW document]
Wang P, Zhao F, Hou J, Lu G, Zhang M, Wang Z (2018) Comparative analysis of CO2, N2, and gas mixture injection on asphaltene deposition pressure in reservoir conditions. Energies 11:2483. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11092483
Wang H, Li G, Zhu B, Sepehrnoori K, Shi L, Zheng Y, Shi X (2019) Key problems and solutions in supercritical CO2 fracturing technology. Front Energy 13:667–672. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-019-0626-y
Witkowski A, Majkut M, Rulik S (2014) Analysis of pipeline transportation systems for carbon dioxide sequestration. Arch Thermodyn 35:117–140. https://doi.org/10.2478/aoter-2014-0008
Xie X, Economides MJ (2009) The impact of carbon geological sequestration. SPE Am. E P Environ. Saf Conf 2009:50–62. https://doi.org/10.2118/120333-ms
Xu L, Li Q, Myers M, White C, Tan Y (2020) Experimental and numerical investigation of supercritical CO2 migration in sandstone with multiple clay interlayers. Int J Greenh Gas Control 104:103194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103194
Yang Z, Liu X, Hua Z, Ling Y, Li M, Lin M, Dong Z (2015) Interfacial tension of CO2 and crude oils under high pressure and temperature. Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Asp 482:611–616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2015.05.058
Yernazarova A, Kayirmanova G, Zhubanova ABa (2016) Microbial enhanced oil recovery. In: Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (cEOR) - a practical overview. Intech Open. https://doi.org/10.5772/64805
Zhang C, Qiao C, Li S, Li Z (2018) The effect of oil properties on the supercritical CO2 diffusion coefficient under tight reservoir conditions. Energies 11:1495. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11061495
Zhao J, Wen D (2017) Pore-scale simulation of wettability and interfacial tension effects on flooding process for enhanced oil recovery. RSC Adv 7:41391–41398. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7RA07325A
Zhu G, Yao J, Li A, Sun H, Zhang L (2017) Pore-scale investigation of carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery. Energy Fuel 31:5324–5332. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.7b00058
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization: Dr. Jitendra S. Sangwai and Satyajit Chowdhury; methodology: Satyajit Chowdhury and Mayank Rakesh; formal analysis and investigation: Satyajit Chowdhury, Mayank Rakesh, and Dr. Srawanti Medhi; writing (original draft preparation): Satyajit Chowdhury and Mayank Rakesh; writing with review and editing: Dr. Jitendra S. Sangwai, Dr. Japan Trivedi, and Dr. Srawanti Medhi; supervision: Dr. Jitendra S. Sangwai
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable
Consent for publication
Not applicable
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chowdhury, S., Rakesh, M., Medhi, S. et al. Pore-scale flow simulation of supercritical CO2 and oil flow for simultaneous CO2 geo-sequestration and enhanced oil recovery. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 76003–76025 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21217-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21217-7