Characterising flow behaviour for gas injection: relative permeability of CO sub 2 /sub -brine and N sub 2 /sub-water in heterogeneous rocks
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Accepted version
Published version
Author(s)
Reynolds, C
Krevor, S
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We provide a comprehensive experimental study of steady state, drainage relative permeability curves with CO2-brine and N2-deionized water, on a single Bentheimer sandstone core with a simple two-layer heterogeneity. We demonstrate that, if measured in the viscous limit, relative permeability is invariant with changing reservoir conditions, and is consistent with the continuum-scale multiphase flow theory for water wet systems. Furthermore, we show that under capillary limited conditions, the CO2-brine system is very sensitive to heterogeneity in capillary pressure, and by performing core floods under capillary limited conditions, we produce effective relative permeability curves that are flow rate and fluid parameter dependent. We suggest that the major uncertainty in past observations of CO2-brine relative permeability curves is due to the interaction of CO2 flow with pore space heterogeneity under capillary limited conditions and is not due to the effects of changing reservoir conditions. We show that the appropriate conditions for measuring intrinsic or effective relative permeability curves can be selected simply by scaling the driving force for flow by a quantification of capillary heterogeneity. Measuring one or two effective curves on a core with capillary heterogeneity that is representative of the reservoir will be sufficient for reservoir simulation.
Date Issued
2015-12-12
Date Acceptance
2015-11-18
Citation
Water Resources Research, 2015, 51 (12), pp.9464-9489
ISSN
0043-1397
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Start Page
9464
End Page
9489
Journal / Book Title
Water Resources Research
Volume
51
Issue
12
Copyright Statement
© 2015. The Authors.This is an open access article under theterms of the Creativ e Commons Attri-bution License, which permits use, dis-tribution and reproduction in anymedium, provide d the original work isproperly cite
License URL
Sponsor
Qatar Shell Research and Technology Center QSTP LLC
Grant Number
490000724
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Physical Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Limnology
Water Resources
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Marine & Freshwater Biology
RESERVOIR CONDITIONS
CARBON-DIOXIDE
SUPERCRITICAL CO2/BRINE
CO2/WATER SYSTEM
IMMISCIBLE FLOW
CO2 INJECTION
2-PHASE FLOW
SANDSTONE
STATE
PRESSURE
Environmental Engineering
0905 Civil Engineering
0907 Environmental Engineering
1402 Applied Economics
Publication Status
Published