Storage of CO2 in saline aquifers: Effects of gravity, viscous, and capillary forces on amount and timing of trapping

CO2 can be effectively immobilized during CO2 injection into saline aquifers by residual trapping – also known as capillary trapping – a process resulting from capillary snap-off of isolated CO2 bubbles. Simulations of CO2 injection were performed to investigate the interplay of viscous and gravity forces and capillary trapping of CO2. Results of those simulations show that gas injection processes in which gravitational forces are weak compared to viscous forces (low gravity number Ngv) trap significantly more CO2 than do flows with strong gravitational forces relative to the viscous forces (high Ngv). The results also indicate that over a wide range of gravity numbers (Ngv), significant fractions of the trapping of CO2 can occur relatively quickly. The amount of CO2 that is trapped after injection ceases is demonstrated to correlate with Ngv. For some simulated displacements, effects of capillary pressure and aquifer dip angle on the amount and the rate of trapping are reported. Trapping increases when effects of capillary pressure and aquifer inclination are included in the model. Finally we show that injection schemes such as alternating injection of brine and CO2 or brine injection after CO2 injection can also enhance the trapping behavior.