Safe Storage Parameters During CO2 Injection Using Coupled Reservoir-Geomechanical Analysis

T.I. Bjørnarå[1], E. Aker[1], and E. Skurtveit[1]
[1]NGI, Oslo, Norway
Published in 2009

Safe short term storage of CO2 depends mainly on structural and solubility trapping. On longer term, mineral trapping is also contributing to the trapping of CO2. To be able to investigate the importance of these different storage mechanisms, a finite element model for simulation of CO2 injection has been developed in COMSOL Multiphysics®. The model describes and solves for two-phase flow (including dissolution of CO2 in water) and fully coupled two-way interaction between the fluid flow and the solid displacement using elastic linear Biot poroelasticity theory. A rudimentary model is presented here to illustrate the practical use of the model by determining the flow regime (considering dissolution of CO2) and the stress distribution due to CO2 injection into a formation.