The Use of Polymer-gel Solutions for CO2 Flow Diversion and Mobility Control within Storage Sites

This paper presents a study on the use of polymer-gel technology as an option to remediate non-conformal flow behaviour of CO2 within the storage reservoir. Several polymer-gels with crosslinkers were tested. The rheology, gelation and working times of these polymer-gels at various concentrations were characterised under different temperatures representative of CO2 storage reservoirs. Laboratory core flooding experiments were then carried out on high permeability core samples to test the suitability of polymer-gel solution for flow through and containment of CO2 in porous media. The core samples saturated with brine were subjected to polymer-gel injection. Core sample permeability for CO2 was then measured and the change in CO2 permeability of the sample before and after polymer-gel injection was noted. Reservoir simulations for different scenarios of flow diversion were carried out using the permeability reduction results from the laboratory work on a realistic reservoir model with faults and high permeability channel structures.