Quantitative Analysis on Areal Displacement Efficiency in a Supercritical CO2-Water-Quartz Sands System

Micromodels were developed to improve our understanding of how CO2 flooding and storage efficiency are affected by the wettability in supercritical CO2-water-quartz sands systems. The micromodel in a pressurized chamber allowed to visualize scCO2 spreading and porewater displacement at high pressure and temperature conditions. CO2 flooding followed by fingering migration and dewatering followed by formation of residual water were observed. Measurement of areal displacement efficiency at equilibrium decreases as the salinity increases, whereas it increases as the pressure and temperature increases. Experimental results provided fundamental information on migration and distribution of injecting scCO2 under reservoir conditions and CO2 sequestration progress.