Abstract
Carbon dioxide reacts with porous media while flowing through them enhancing their permeability. Its flow behavior as well as the permeability enhancement effects were studied in synthetic cores, natural cores and microtubes with an inner diameter of 5 μm. The results show that the permeability of H2O-saturated cores (containing carbonate ingredients) was enhanced by increasing the injection volume of a CO2-H2O solution. This enhancement is attributable to carbon dioxide’s corrosion, which is justified by SEM scanning. The same phenomenon occurs with a CO2-H2O solution in microtubes, but for a different reason. The gas flow velocity of carbon dioxide in microtubes was approximately 100% faster than that of nitrogen because of the scale and the squeezing effects. Carbon dioxide molecules dissolved in water accelerate the diffusion rate of water molecules within the boundary layer, which in turn diminishes the thickness of the water film and enlarges the effective pore size. This flow behavior facilitates the injection of carbon dioxide into low-permeability reservoirs for oil-displacement and formation energy buildup purposes. This behavior also increases the potential for carbon dioxide channeling or release from the formation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Klins M A. Carbon Dioxide Flooding: Basic Mechanisms and Project Design (Translated by Cheng S J)(in Chinese). Beijing: Petroleum Industry Press, 1989. 82–90
Zuo Y X, Stenby E H. A Linear gradient theory model for calculating interfacial tensions of mixtures. J Colloid Interf Sci, 1996, 182: 126–132
Sun C Y, Chen G J. Measurement of interfacial tension for the CO2 injected crude oil + reservoir water system. J Chem Eng Data, 2005, 50: 936–938
Huang Y Z, Liu F H, Yang Z M. Mass transfer of complex chemical fluid in porous media. Acta Mech Sin (in Chinese), 2002, 34(2): 256–260
Yang Q, Nie M X, Song F Q. Threshold pressure gradient of low permeability sandstone. J Tsinghua Univ (Science and Technology) (in Chinese), 2004, 44(12): 1650–1652
Chen Y M, Zhou J, Liu W X, et al. Experimental demonstration of the non-darcy phenomenon during low velocity flow through porous media. J Chongqing Univ (Natural Science Edition) (in Chinese), 2000, 23(Suppl): 59–61
Liu J J, Liu X G, Hu Y R. Study on nonlinear seepage of rock of low permeability. Chin J Rock Mech (in Chinese), 2003, 22(4): 556–561
Karacan C O, Okandan E. Adsorption and gas transport in coal microstructure: Investigation and evaluation by quantitative X-ray CT imaging. Fuel, 2001, 80: 509–520
Yu D, Jackson K, Harmon T C. Dispersion and diffusion in porous media under supercritical conditions. Chem Eng Sci, 1999, 54: 357–367
Choi J G, Do D D, Do H D. Surface diffusion of adsorbed molecules in porous media: Monolayer, multilayer, and capillary condensation regimes. Ind Eng Chem Res, 2001, 40: 4005–4031
Cicero G, Grossman J, Catellani A, et al. Water at a hydrophilic solid surface probed by ab initio molecular dynamics: Inhomogeneous thin layers of dense fluid. J Am Chem Soc, 2005, 127: 6830–6835
Asay D B, Kim S H. Evolution of the adsorbed water layer structure on silicon oxide at room temperature. J Phys Chem B, 2005, 109: 16760–16763
Li K, Horne R N. Gas slippage in two-phase flow and the effect of temperature. SPE 68778
Rushing J A, Newsham K E, Van Fraassen K C. Measurement of the Two-Phase Gas Slippage Phenomenon and Its Effect on Gas Relative Permeability in Tight Gas Sands. SPE 84297
Li Z H, Zhou X B, Zhu S N. Flow characteristics of non-polar organic liquids with small molecules in a microchannel. Acta Mech Sin (in Chinese), 2002, 34(3): 432–437
Xu S L, Yue X A, Hou J R. Experimental investigation on flow characteristics of deionized water in microtubes. Chin Sci Bull, 2007, 52(1): 120–124
Liu J J, Liu X G. The effect of effective pressure of porosity and permeability of low permeability porous media. J of Geomech (in Chinese), 2001, 7(1): 41–44
Toews K L, Shroll R M, Wai C M, et al. PH-defining equilibrium between water and supercritical CO2 influence on SFE of organics and metal chelates. Anal Chem, 1995, 67: 4040–4043
Cahn J W. Critical point wetting. J Chem Phys, 1977, 66(8): 3667–3672
Rafaï S, Bonn D, Bertrand E, et al. Long-range critical wetting: Observation of a critical end point. Phys Rev Lett, 2004, 92(24): 1–4
Seibt D, Vogel E, Bich E, et al. Viscosity measurements on nitrogen. J Chem Eng Data, 2006, 51: 526–533
Iwasaki H, Takahashi M. Viscosity of carbon dioxide and ethane. J Chem Phys, 1981, 74(3): 1930–1943
Hori T, Rohner R M, Kojima H, et al. Structure correlation between ciffusion coefficients of simple organic compounds and of anionic and cationic dyes in water. J Soc Dyers Colour, 1987, 103: 265–270
Matthews M A, Becnel J M. Diffusion coefficients of methyl orange in dense carbon dioxide with the micelle-forming surfactant dehypon Ls-54. J Chem Eng Data, 2003, 48: 1413–1417
Zeng R S, Sun S, Chen D Z, et al. Decrease carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere-underground disposal of carbon dioxide. Bull Nat Nat Sci Found Chin (in Chinese), 2004. 196–200
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supported by the “973” Project from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2006CB705805) and the National Key Technology R&D Program (Grant Nos. 2006BAB03B06 & 2007BAB17B0B)
About this article
Cite this article
Zhao, R., Yue, X., Wu, Y. et al. Flow characteristics and reaction properties of carbon dioxide in microtubules and porous media. Chin. Sci. Bull. 53, 3409–3415 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-008-0456-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-008-0456-5