Speaker
Description
Mineral nucleation dictates the areas within porous media where secondary minerals form and grow, and in turn, how fluid flow is affected by the growth. Recently, probabilistic treatments of mineral nucleation in reactive transport models (RTM) have provided insights into how factors such as supersaturation and pore-space characteristics affect the spatial pattern of mineral nucleation and growth.
Here, we contrast the two probabilistic models in use, both based on the classical nucleation theory (CNT). The model from Fazeli and colleagues [1] can be used both at the pore scale and the continuum scale and captures the statistical nature of surfaces that appear homogeneous on the macro scale, while the one from Starchenko [2] is limited to the pore scale. We illustrate how the macroscopic nature of the models masks the underlying variability that controls the nucleation rates across macroscopic surfaces. This is because the models are based on bulk properties of surfaces, such as surface tension, and not the intrinsic variability of surface reactivity seen on the micro scale. Therefore, we propose a new model for heterogeneous nucleation that considers the intrinsic properties of the microscopic surface architecture and applies both to classical and non-classical nucleation pathways. As is the case with approaches to crystal dissolution [3], accounting for the variability of crystal surface reactivity may help predict how pore networks evolve.
References
[1] Fazeli, H., Masoudi M., Patel, R.A., Aagaard, P., Hellevang, H. (2020)
ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 4 (2), 249-260. DOI: 10.1021/acsearthspacechem.9b00290
[2] Starchenko, V. (2022) Pore-Scale Modeling of Mineral Growth and Nucleation in Reactive Flow. Front. Water 3:800944. doi: 10.3389/frwa.2021.800944
[3] Schabernack, J. & Fischer, C. (2022) Geochim Cosmochim Acta 334, 99-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2022.08.003
| References | sd |
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| Country | Norway |
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