Analytical solution for Joule–Thomson cooling during CO2 geo-sequestration in depleted oil and gas reservoirs

Mathematical tools are needed to screen out sites where Joule–Thomson cooling is a prohibitive factor for CO2 geo-sequestration and to design approaches to mitigate the effect. In this paper, a simple analytical solution is developed by invoking steady-state flow and constant thermophysical properties. The analytical solution allows fast evaluation of spatiotemporal temperature fields, resulting from constant-rate CO2 injection. The applicability of the analytical solution is demonstrated by comparison with non-isothermal simulation results from the reservoir simulator TOUGH2. Analysis confirms that for an injection rate of 3 kg s−1 (0.1 MT yr−1) into moderately warm (>40 °C) and permeable formations (>10−14 m2 (10 mD)), JTC is unlikely to be a problem for initial reservoir pressures as low as 2 MPa (290 psi).