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Toward physical aspects affecting a possible leakage of geologically stored CO2 into the shallow subsurface

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Abstract

In geological formations, migration of CO2 plume is very complex and irregular. To make CO2 capture and storage technology feasible, it is important to quantify CO2 amount associated with possible leakage through natural occurring faults and fractures in geologic medium. Present work examines the fracture aperture effect on CO2 migration due to free convection. Numerical results reveal that fracture with larger-aperture intensify CO2 leakage. Mathematical formulation and equations of state for the mixture are implemented within the object-oriented finite element code OpenGeoSys developed by the authors. The volume translated Peng–Robinson equation of state is used for material properties of CO2 and water.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the CO2BENCH (FKZ 03G0797D) project as a part of the Special Program GEOTECHNOLOGIEN.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstr. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Ashok Singh, Jens Olaf Delfs, Uwe Jens Görke & Olaf. Kolditz

  2. Water and Earth System Science Research Centre (WESS), Keplerstraße 17, 72074, Tübingen, Germany

    Jens Olaf Delfs

  3. University of Technology Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Olaf. Kolditz

Authors
  1. Ashok Singh
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  2. Jens Olaf Delfs
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  3. Uwe Jens Görke
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  4. Olaf. Kolditz
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Correspondence to Ashok Singh.

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Singh, A., Delfs, J.O., Görke, U.J. et al. Toward physical aspects affecting a possible leakage of geologically stored CO2 into the shallow subsurface. Acta Geotech. 9, 81–86 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-013-0237-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-013-0237-4

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