Speaker
Description
Reactive transport and multiphase flow in porous media are encountered in several important environmental applications such as carbon storage, hydrogen storage and use, and contaminant transport in hydrocarbon spills. Understanding of flow, transport and reaction processes in the subsurface has been transformed by the advances in X-ray imaging, image analysis and pore-scale modelling. It is an accurate experimental description of solid and fluid(s) distributions in the pore space along with the ability to study dynamics of multi-phase flow and reactive transport that has helped better grasp fundamental physics of these processes.
Traditional framework for prediction of dissolution patterns and reaction rates by Pe-Da diagrams (e.g. Golfier et al.(2003), Battiato and Tartakovsky (2011)) has been expanded by recognising the impact of (i) flow (hence transport) heterogeneity quantified by velocity and probability displacement distributions (Bijeljic et al, 2013) and (ii) injection rate in single-mineral media (Menke et al., 2016; Al-Khulaifi et al., 2018); (iii) mineral content and (iv) mineral distribution in multi-mineral media (Al-Khulaifi et al., 2019, Adedipe et al., 2025); and (v) hydrocarbon phase distribution and (vi) hydrocarbon phase remobilization in multiphase media (Ma et al., 2025). These determinants for dissolution patterns will be discussed in mass transfer limited and reaction limited regimes for which the impact of heterogeneity is the most profound, and illustrated by reservoir conditions experiments of supercritical CO2 acidic brine injection into carbonate rock.
Novel concepts including: (i) Screening for Pore-scale Imaging and Modelling developed to determine and classify heterogeneity signatures (Al-Khulaifi et al. 2018), and (ii) Mineral Proximity Distributions (Al-Khulaifi et al. 2019) to fast flow channels developed to characterize coupled flow and reaction dynamics will be highlighted.
Furthermore, the significance of this work lies in expanding the knowledge on the scale dependence of mineral reaction rates (e.g. White and Brantley, 2003); Maher 2010). The effective reaction rates are found to be orders of magnitude lower than the corresponding intrinsic batch rates due to mass transfer limitations. Moreover, the changes in porosity, permeability, velocity field and transport behaviour as characterised by distributions, explain the impact of transport heterogeneity, mineral spatial distribution and presence of hydrocarbon phase on the effective dissolution rates in carbon-dioxide storage in aquifers and hydrocarbon reservoirs.
A further example that focuses on reactive flow coupling will show the measurements of steady-state relative permeability in presence of chemical reaction with the host rock (Chai et al. (2025). Both dissolution and precipitation can alter pore space thus altering the absolute and relative permeability characteristics of the medium.
Overall, the novel experimental and image analysis methodologies allowed us to study the next level of complexity including multimineral media and coupling of reactive transport and multiphase flow processes, which have now been the subjects for future work..
| References | Golfier, F., Zarcone, C., Bazin, B., Lenormand, R., Lasseux, D., & Quintard, M. (2002). On the ability of a Darcy-scale model to capture wormhole formation during the dissolution of a porous medium. Journal of fluid Mechanics, 457, 213-254. Battiato, I., & Tartakovsky, D. M. (2011). Applicability regimes for macroscopic models of reactive transport in porous media. Journal of contaminant hydrology, 120, 18-26. Bijeljic, B., Raeini, A., Mostaghimi, P., & Blunt, M. J. (2013). Predictions of non-Fickian solute transport in different classes of porous media using direct simulation on pore-scale images. Physical Review E—Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 87(1), 013011. Menke, H. P., Andrew, M. G., Blunt, M. J., & Bijeljic, B. J. C. G. (2016). Reservoir condition imaging of reactive transport in heterogeneous carbonates using fast synchrotron tomography—Effect of initial pore structure and flow conditions. Chemical Geology, 428, 15-26. Al-Khulaifi, Y., Lin, Q., Blunt, M. J., & Bijeljic, B. (2018). Reservoir-condition pore-scale imaging of dolomite reaction with supercritical CO2 acidified brine: Effect of pore-structure on reaction rate using velocity distribution analysis. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 68, 99-111. Al‐Khulaifi, Y., Lin, Q., Blunt, M. J., & Bijeljic, B. (2019). Pore‐scale dissolution by CO2 saturated brine in a multimineral carbonate at reservoir conditions: Impact of physical and chemical heterogeneity. Water Resources Research, 55(4), 3171-3193. Adedipe, O. A., Al-Khulaifi, Y., Foroughi, S., Lin, Q., Blunt, M. J., & Bijeljic, B. (2025). Impact of Mineral Spatial Distribution on CO2 Dissolution Rates in Multimineral Carbonate Rocks. Authorea Preprints. Ma, Q., Chai, R., Foroughi, S., Wang, Y., Blunt, M. J., & Bijeljic, B. (2025). Pore-Scale Dynamics of Multiphase Reactive Transport in Water-Wet Carbonates under CO2-Acidified Brine Injection: Dissolution Patterns and Reaction Rates. arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.18907. White, A. F., & Brantley, S. L. (2003). The effect of time on the weathering of silicate minerals: why do weathering rates differ in the laboratory and field?. Chemical Geology, 202(3-4), 479-506. Maher, K. (2010). The dependence of chemical weathering rates on fluid residence time. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 294(1-2), 101-110. Chai, R., Ma, Q., Goodarzi, S., Yow, F. Y., Bijeljic, B., & Blunt, M. J. (2025). Multiphase Reactive Flow During CO2 Storage in Sandstone. Engineering. |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
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