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Geomechanical and geochemical effects on sandstones caused by the reaction with supercritical CO2: an experimental approach to in situ conditions in deep geological reservoirs

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Abstract

The geochemical and geomechanical behaviour of reservoir rocks from deep saline aquifers during the injection and geological storage of CO2 is studied in laboratory experiments. A combination of geochemical and geomechanical studies was carried out on various sandstones from the North German Basin. After the mineralogical, geochemical and petrophysical characterization, a set of sandstone samples was exposed to supercritical (sc)CO2 and brine for 2–4 weeks in an autoclave system. One sample was mineralogically and geochemically characterised and then loaded in a triaxial cell under in situ pressure and temperature conditions to study the changes of the geomechanical rock properties. After treatment in the autoclaves, geochemical alterations mainly in the carbonate, but also in the sheet silicate cements as well as in single minerals of the sandstones were observed, affecting the rocks granular structure. In addition to partial solution effects during the geochemical experiments, small grains of secondary carbonate and other mineral precipitations were observed within the pore space of the treated sandstones. Results of additional geomechanical experiments with untreated samples show that the rock strength is influenced by the saturation degree, the confining pressure, the pore fluid pressure and temperature. The exposure to pure scCO2 in the autoclave system induces reduced strength parameters, modified elastic deformation behaviour and changes of the effective porosity in comparison to untreated sandstone samples. Experimental results show that the volume of pore fluid fluxing into the pore space of the sandstones clearly depends on the saturation level of the sample.

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Acknowledgments

The work was carried out within the German national project COORAL (“CO2 Purity for Capture and Storage”), which is financially supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Third party funding was provided by ALSTOM, EnBW, E.ON, Vattenfall, and VNG. The authors gratefully acknowledge the technicians of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg who executed all geomechanical tests as well as the geochemical analytical work. The authors would like to thank Mr. D. Erickson for revising the English language of the text. We appreciated the comments of the anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg, Von-Seckendorff-Platz 3, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Herwig Marbler, Kirsten P. Erickson, Michael Schmidt, Christof Lempp & Herbert Pöllmann

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  1. Herwig Marbler
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  2. Kirsten P. Erickson
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Correspondence to Herwig Marbler or Kirsten P. Erickson.

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Marbler, H., Erickson, K.P., Schmidt, M. et al. Geomechanical and geochemical effects on sandstones caused by the reaction with supercritical CO2: an experimental approach to in situ conditions in deep geological reservoirs. Environ Earth Sci 69, 1981–1998 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-2033-0

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