30 May 2022 to 2 June 2022
Asia/Dubai timezone

Capillary sealing efficiency of caprock: Implications for hydrogen and carbon-dioxide geo–storage

30 May 2022, 15:10
1h 10m
Poster Presentation (MS01) Porous Media for a Green World: Energy & Climate Poster

Speaker

Mr Amer Alanazi (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

Description

Geo-storage of hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) is a promising solution for a low-carbon global economy (Ali, 2021; Ali et al., 2022a; Ali et al., 2021b; Bui et al., 2018; Pan et al., 2021b). The knowledge of the capillary entry pressure of caprock is critical, which provides a rapid assessment of the capillary sealing efficiency and sealing capacity, particularly in the presence of impurities (organic acids) and formation brine (Hosseini et al., 2022a; Pan et al., 2021a). However, the literature lacks such analysis on caprock under storage conditions, specifically for H2. An efficient and safe structural storage requires a deep understanding of key parameters such as pore geometry, organic acid contents, pressure, temperature, and salinity on the wetting characteristics of the rock/gas/brine system for comprehending the capillary sealing efficiency (Al-Anssari et al., 2018; Al-Yaseri et al., 2022; Ali et al., 2020; Ali et al., 2021a; Arif et al., 2019; Hosseini et al., 2022b; Iglauer et al., 2021). Therefore, it is pertinent to determine the wetting characteristics of caprock and interfacial tension (IFT) between liquid and gas to mitigate any potential sealing problems.
The capillary sealing efficiency and entry pressure of the gas is determined using the interfacial tension (IFT) between liquid and gas, the contact angle of the rock surface in the presence of liquid and gas, and the typical pore throat radius of caprock, i.e., 5 nm and 10 nm (Hosseini et al., 2022a). The capillary sealing works against the buoyancy pressure exerted by the gas column height, therefore, the maximum static column height of the gas is crucial in these calculations (Hosseini et al., 2022a; Iglauer et al., 2015). The geological formation contains organic molecules and their effect on wetting characteristics is widely reported (Akob et al., 2015; Ali et al., 2020; Ali et al., 2019a; Ali et al., 2019b; Ali et al., 2021a; Ali et al., 2021b; Ali et al., 2022b; Lundegard and Kharaka, 1994). Therefore, this work investigates the capillary-sealing efficiency using contact angle measurements of pure mica as a proxy of caprock compared to organic-aged mica, and the effect of alumina nanoparticles on organic-aged mica substrates under various geological conditions (i.e. up to 25 MPa and 343 K).
The results indicate that the sealing efficiency and storage capacity for H2 and CO2 decreased with pressure and higher organic surface concentration but increased with temperature. The analysis demonstrates the theoretical inverse relationship between the capillary entry pressure and the pore throat radius. The smaller the pore size, the more suitable the conditions for sealing and storage capacity. The analysis of the alumina-nano-organic-aged mica/CO2 systems showed improved wettability and better sealing efficiency. In a nutshell, this work provides a detailed theoretical workflow to assess the influence of organic molecules on the sealing efficiency and storage capacity of caprock for safe and secure geo-storage of H2 and CO2.

References

Akob, D.M., Cozzarelli, I.M., Dunlap, D.S., Rowan, E.L. and Lorah, M.M., 2015. Organic and inorganic composition and microbiology of produced waters from Pennsylvania shale gas wells. Applied Geochemistry, 60: 116-125.
Al-Anssari, S. et al., 2018. Influence of Pressure and Temperature on CO2-Nanofluid Interfacial Tension: Implication for Enhanced Oil Recovery and Carbon Geosequestration, Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference. Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Al-Yaseri, A. et al., 2022. Effect of organic acids on CO2-rock and water-rock interfacial tension: Implications for CO2 geo-storage. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering: 110480.
Ali, M., 2021. Effect of Organics and Nanoparticles on CO2-Wettability of Reservoir Rock; Implications for CO2 Geo-Storage, Curtin University.
Ali, M. et al., 2020. Influence of organic acid concentration on wettability alteration of cap-rock: implications for CO2 trapping/storage. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 12(35): 39850-39858.
Ali, M. et al., 2019a. Organic acid concentration thresholds for ageing of carbonate minerals: Implications for CO2 trapping/storage. Journal of colloid and interface science, 534: 88-94.
Ali, M. et al., 2019b. CO2-wettability of sandstones exposed to traces of organic acids: Implications for CO2 geo-storage. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 83: 61-68.
Ali, M. et al., 2021a. Hydrogen wettability of quartz substrates exposed to organic acids; Implications for hydrogen trapping/storage in sandstone reservoirs. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering: 109081.
Ali, M. et al., 2022a. Recent advances in carbon dioxide geological storage, experimental procedures, influencing parameters, and future outlook. Earth-Science Reviews, 225: 103895.
Ali, M. et al., 2021b. Influence of pressure, temperature and organic surface concentration on hydrogen wettability of caprock; implications for hydrogen geo-storage. Energy Reports, 7: 5988-5996.
Ali, M. et al., 2022b. Influence of organic molecules on wetting characteristics of mica/H2/brine systems: Implications for hydrogen structural trapping capacities. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 608: 1739-1749.
Arif, M., Abu-Khamsin, S. and Iglauer, S., 2019. Wettability of rock/CO2/brine and rock/oil/CO2-enriched-brine systems: Critical parametric analysis and future outlook. Advances in colloid and interface science.
Bui, M. et al., 2018. Carbon capture and storage (CCS): the way forward. Energy & Environmental Science, 11(5): 1062-1176.
Hosseini, M., Fahimpour, J., Ali, M., Keshavarz, A. and Iglauer, S., 2022a. Capillary Sealing Efficiency Analysis of Caprocks: Implication for Hydrogen Geological Storage. Energy & Fuels.
Hosseini, M., Fahimpour, J., Ali, M., Keshavarz, A. and Iglauer, S., 2022b. Hydrogen wettability of carbonate formations: Implications for hydrogen geo-storage. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science.
Iglauer, S., Ali, M. and Keshavarz, A., 2021. Hydrogen Wettability of Sandstone Reservoirs: Implications for Hydrogen Geo‐Storage. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(3): e2020GL090814.
Iglauer, S., Pentland, C. and Busch, A., 2015. CO2 wettability of seal and reservoir rocks and the implications for carbon geo‐sequestration. Water Resources Research, 51(1): 729-774.
Lundegard, P.D. and Kharaka, Y.K., 1994. Distribution and occurrence of organic acids in subsurface waters, Organic acids in geological processes. Springer, pp. 40-69.
Pan, B., Yin, X. and Iglauer, S., 2021a. Rock-fluid interfacial tension at subsurface conditions: Implications for H2, CO2 and natural gas geo-storage. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 46(50): 25578-25585.
Pan, B., Yin, X., Ju, Y. and Iglauer, S., 2021b. Underground hydrogen storage: Influencing parameters and future outlook. Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 294: 102473.

Participation In person
Country Saudi Arabia
MDPI Energies Student Poster Award Yes, I would like to submit this presentation into the student poster award.
Time Block Preference Time Block B (14:00-17:00 CET)
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Primary authors

Mr Amer Alanazi (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) Dr Muhammad Ali (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) Dr Hussein Hoteit (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

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