Speaker
Description
Geologic carbon storage in mafic and ultramafic formations offers a promising strategy for long-term CO2 sequestration through in situ mineralization. Although this process can permanently immobilize carbon, its efficiency depends on the interplay between fluid flow, solute transport and geochemical reactions occurring within complex fracture networks. In this study, we develop a two-dimensional discrete fracture-matrix model that explicitly resolves fracture geometry and simulates coupled flow, solute transport, and dissolution and precipitation processes using the dfnWorks and PFLOTRAN frameworks. A set of global sensitivity analysis strategies are performed for in situ mineralization taking place in heterogeneous fractured formations to quantify the influence of key structural, hydraulic, transport and geochemical parameters. Additionally, we explore parameters interactions and the presence of thresholds and diverse response regimes through enhanced scatter plots. Our results show the key control of the combined degree of hydraulic and structural heterogeneity, which dictates two diverse response regimes in which either the pressure gradient sustaining flow or the strength of diffusive solute transport impact the amount of mineralization. At the same time, parameters associated with the geochemical aspect, like reaction rates and surface areas, exert minor influence. These findings demonstrate that the interplay between fracture network structure and its coupling with reactive transport govern carbon trapping efficiency, providing new mechanistic insight for optimizing mineralization-based carbon storage in fractured mafic and ultramafic rocks.
| Country | Italy |
|---|---|
| Green Housing & Porous Media Focused Abstracts | This abstract is related to Green Housing |
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