TY - JOUR
T1 - An Investigation into CO2–Brine–Cement–Reservoir Rock Interactions for Wellbore Integrity in CO2 Geological Storage
AU - Jahanbakhsh, Amir
AU - Liu, Qi
AU - Mosleh, Mojgan Hadi
AU - Agrawal, Harshit
AU - Farooqui, Nazia Mubeen
AU - Buckman, Jim
AU - Recasens, Montserrat
AU - Maroto-Valer, M. Mercedes
AU - Korre, Anna
AU - Durucan, Sevket
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Re‐ search Council for the funding provided. Financial support received from the Robert M. Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering at Heriot‐Watt University is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank Dubravka Pokrajac of the University of Aberdeen for the micro‐CT imaging.
Funding Information:
This research was carried out as part of the UK Research Councils? Energy Programme-funded consortium project ?CO2 injection and storage?short? and long?term behaviour at different spatial scales? (Grant Reference: EP/K035967/1).
Funding Information:
Funding: This research was carried out as part of the UK Research Councils’ Energy Programme‐ funded consortium project “CO2 injection and storage—short‐ and long‐term behaviour at different spatial scales” (Grant Reference: EP/K035967/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/8/16
Y1 - 2021/8/16
N2 - Geological storage of CO2 in saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs can help mitigate CO2 emissions. However, CO2 leakage over a long storage period represents a potential concern. Therefore, it is critical to establish a good understanding of the interactions between CO2–brine and cement–caprock/reservoir rock to ascertain the potential for CO2 leakage. Accordingly, in this work, we prepared a unique set of composite samples to resemble the cement–reservoir rock interface. A series of experiments simulating deep wellbore environments were performed to investigate changes in chemical, physical, mechanical, and petrophysical properties of the composite samples. Here, we present the characterisation of composite core samples, including porosity, permeability, and mechanical properties, determined before and after long-term exposure to CO2-rich brine. Some of the composite samples were further analysed by X-ray microcomputed tomography (X-ray µ-CT), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM–EDX). Moreover, the variation of ions concentration in brine at different timescales was studied by performing inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis. Although no significant changes were observed in the porosity, permeability of the treated composite samples increased by an order of magnitude, due mainly to an increase in the permeability of the sandstone component of the composite samples, rather than the cement or the cement/sandstone interface. Mechanical properties, including Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, were also reduced.
AB - Geological storage of CO2 in saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs can help mitigate CO2 emissions. However, CO2 leakage over a long storage period represents a potential concern. Therefore, it is critical to establish a good understanding of the interactions between CO2–brine and cement–caprock/reservoir rock to ascertain the potential for CO2 leakage. Accordingly, in this work, we prepared a unique set of composite samples to resemble the cement–reservoir rock interface. A series of experiments simulating deep wellbore environments were performed to investigate changes in chemical, physical, mechanical, and petrophysical properties of the composite samples. Here, we present the characterisation of composite core samples, including porosity, permeability, and mechanical properties, determined before and after long-term exposure to CO2-rich brine. Some of the composite samples were further analysed by X-ray microcomputed tomography (X-ray µ-CT), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM–EDX). Moreover, the variation of ions concentration in brine at different timescales was studied by performing inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis. Although no significant changes were observed in the porosity, permeability of the treated composite samples increased by an order of magnitude, due mainly to an increase in the permeability of the sandstone component of the composite samples, rather than the cement or the cement/sandstone interface. Mechanical properties, including Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, were also reduced.
KW - CO2 geological storage
KW - CO2–brine‐cement–reservoir rock interac-tion
KW - Chemical and petrophysical characterisation
KW - Permeability
KW - Wellbore integrity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113351532&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/en14165033
DO - 10.3390/en14165033
M3 - Article
SN - 1996-1073
VL - 14
JO - Energies
JF - Energies
IS - 16
M1 - 5033
ER -