Capillary Pressure and Saturation Relations for Supercritical CO2 and Brine in Sand

Source:  Dan Hawkes

In geologic carbon sequestration, reliable predictions of CO₂ storage
require understanding the capillary behavior of supercritical (sc) CO₂.
Simulations of CO₂ sequestration commonly rely on modifying more
familiar air/H₂O and oil/H₂O P_c(S_w) relations, adjusted to account for
differences in interfacial tensions. To test such
capillary-scaling-based predictions, ESD’s Tetsu Tokunaga and his
investigative team (including ESD’s Jiamin Wong, Jong-Won Jung, Tae Wook
Kim, Youngman Kim, and Wenming Dong) developed a high pressure P_c(S_w)
controller/meter, allowing accurate P_c and S_w measurements. 

This work was performed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
in support of the Center for Nanoscale Control of Geologic CO₂, an
Energy Frontier Research Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under
contract DE-AC02-05CH11231.

For more information, go to: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wrcr.20316/full

Citation: Tokunaga, T.K., J. Wan, J.-W. Jung, T. W. Kim, Y. Kim, and
W. Dong (2013), Capillary pressure and saturation relations for
supercritical CO₂, and brine in sand: High-pressure P_c(S_w)
controller/meter measurements and capillary scaling predictions. Water
Resources Research, 49, 1–14; DOI: 10.1002/wrcr20316.

Funding: BES (NCGC-EFRC), FE (ZERT), NRAP