Injection of CO2-saturated water through a siliceous sandstone plug from the Hontomin test site (Spain): experiment and modeling

Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Jan 2;47(1):159-67. doi: 10.1021/es3012222. Epub 2012 Jul 19.

Abstract

Massive chemical reactions are not expected when injecting CO(2) in siliceous sandstone reservoirs, but their performance can be challenged by small-scale reactions and other processes affecting their transport properties. We have conducted a core flooding test with a quartzarenite plug of Lower Cretaceous age representative of the secondary reservoir of the Hontomín test site. The sample, confined at high pressure, was successively injected with DIW and CO(2)-saturated DIW for 49 days while monitoring geophysical, chemical, and hydrodynamic parameters. The plug experienced little change, without evidence of secondary carbonation. However, permeability increased by a factor of 4 (0.022-0.085 mD), and the V(P)/V(S) ratio, whose change is related with microcracking, rose from ~1.68 to ~1.8. Porosity also increased (7.33-8.1%) from the beginning to the end of the experiment. Fluid/rock reactions were modeled with PHREEQC-2, and they are dominated by the dissolution of Mg-calcite. Mass balances show that ~4% of the initial carbonate was consumed. The results suggest that mineral dissolution and microcracking may have acted in a synergistic way at the beginning of the acidic flooding. However, dissolution processes concentrated in pore throats can better explain the permeability enhancement observed over longer periods of time.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Dioxide / chemistry*
  • Carbon Sequestration
  • Minerals / chemistry*
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Spain
  • Water / chemistry

Substances

  • Minerals
  • Water
  • Carbon Dioxide