CO2 Injection Cycles for Saline Aquifer Sequestration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for greenhouse gas sequestration in deep geological formations are inefficient due to slow absorption and trapping rates, with injected CO2 often forming a buoyant cap that can lead to leakage, making long-term storage unreliable.
Innovation Solution
Optimizing the injection process by creating a transition zone with viscous finger-shaped projections of CO2 within the saline aquifer, using a method that alternates between injecting CO2 and water phases to enhance dissolution and solubility trapping, leveraging the differences in viscosity and capillary forces to accelerate mass transfer and reduce buoyancy effects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional injection techniques are used to sequester greenhouse gases in deep geological formations, then the gas can be injected into the formation, but the absorption and trapping rate is slow
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes phase transitions of CO2 between supercritical and gaseous states to enhance dissolution rates. By injecting CO2 in a supercritical state and allowing it to transition to gaseous state within the formation, the process accelerates mass transfer and improves absorption efficiency compared to conventional gaseous injection methods
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic injection cycles alternating between CO2 injection and water injection. This periodic action creates dynamic front movement and enhances mixing between CO2 and formation water, significantly improving dissolution rates compared to continuous or single-phase injection methods
2Reliability
If CO2 is injected into the formation, then greenhouse gas sequestration is achieved, but a buoyant cap forms that can lead to leakage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs phase transitions to convert buoyant gaseous CO2 into less buoyant supercritical CO2 during injection, reducing the formation of persistent buoyant caps. The phase change allows CO2 to be injected at higher densities, minimizing upward buoyancy forces that would otherwise create leakage-prone gas caps
Solution Approach 2:
The alternating injection cycles of CO2 followed by water create a piston effect that pushes dissolved CO2 downward into deeper formation zones. This periodic water injection prevents the formation of persistent buoyant caps by continuously advancing the CO2-water interface and maintaining pressure distribution that reduces buoyancy-driven leakage risks
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach significantly accelerates the dissolution of CO2 into the saline water, achieving secure solubility trapping in a matter of years rather than millennia, thereby reducing the risk of leakage and enhancing the efficiency of greenhouse gas sequestration.
Implementation Method 1
creating a transition zone with viscous finger-shaped projections of CO2 within the saline aquifer
Implementation Method 2
leveraging the differences in viscosity and capillary forces to accelerate mass transfer
Implementation Method 3
significantly accelerates the dissolution of CO2 into the saline water, achieving secure solubility trapping
Implementation Method 4
accelerate mass transfer and reduce buoyancy effects
Implementation Method 5
Because of the lower density compared to the saline water present in deep aquifers, a buoyancy effect is an intrinsic characteristic property of the injected CO2-enriched gas
Data Source
AI summary
A method is provided for sequestration of a greenhouse gas in a water-laden formation by injection of a fluid comprising greenhouse gas (GHG) into a formation under conditions suitable for generating an unstable front of said greenhouse gas within the formation. The injection may comprise a first stage wherein a gas phase comprising CO2 is injected into the formation, followed by a second stage comprising injecting an aqueous liquid into the formation, to thereby generate an unstable front within the formation that results in relatively rapid dissolution of the injected CO2 within the formation water. The cyclic nature of the injection, alternating between GHG and water injection, can be repeated for a number of times until the carrying capacity of the formation is deemed to have been reached.