Search

Successful deployment of geological carbon storage (GCS) requires an extensive use of reservoir simulators for screening, ranking and optimization of storage sites. However, the time scales of GCS are such that no sufficient long-term data is available yet to validate the simulators against. As a consequence, there is currently no solid basis for assessing the quality with which the dynamics of large-scale GCS operations can be forecasted. To meet this knowledge gap, we have conducted a major GCS validation benchmark study. To achieve reasonable time scales, a laboratory-size geological storage formation was constructed (the “FluidFlower”), forming the basis for both the experimental and computational work. A validation experiment consisting of repeated GCS operations was conducted in the FluidFlower, providing what we define as the true physical dynamics for this system. Nine different research groups from around the world provided forecasts, both individually and collaboratively, based on a detailed physical and petrophysical characterization of the FluidFlower sands. The major contribution of this paper is a report and discussion of the results of the validation benchmark study, complemented by a description of the benchmarking process and the participating computational models. The forecasts from the participating groups are compared to each other and to the experimental data by means of various indicative qualitative and quantitative measures. By this, we provide a detailed assessment of the capabilities of reservoir simulators and their users to capture both the injection and post-injection dynamics of the GCS operations.

Successful deployment of geological carbon storage (GCS) requires an extensive use of reservoir simulators for screening, ranking and optimization of storage sites. However, the time scales of GCS are such that no sufficient long-term data is available yet to validate the simulators against. As a consequence, there is currently no solid basis for assessing the quality with which the dynamics of large-scale GCS operations can be forecasted. To meet this knowledge gap, we have conducted a major GCS validation benchmark study. To achieve reasonable time scales, a laboratory-size geological storage formation was constructed (the "FluidFlower"), forming the basis for both the experimental and computational work. A validation experiment consisting of repeated GCS operations was conducted in the FluidFlower, providing what we define as the true physical dynamics for this system. Nine different research groups from around the world provided forecasts, both individually and collaboratively, based on a detailed physical and petrophysical characterization of the FluidFlower sands. The major contribution of this paper is a report and discussion of the results of the validation benchmark study, complemented by a description of the benchmarking process and the participating computational models. The forecasts from the participating groups are compared to each other and to the experimental data by means of various indicative qualitative and quantitative measures. By this, we provide a detailed assessment of the capabilities of reservoir simulators and their users to capture both the injection and post-injection dynamics of the GCS operations.

Accepted Author Manuscript, Applied Geology

At the 2015 United Nations International Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21), 197 national parties committed to limit global warming to well below 2°C. But current plans and pace of progress are still far from sufficient to achieve this objective. Here we review the role that geoscience and the subsurface could play in decarbonizing electricity production, industry, transport and heating to meet UK and international climate change targets, based on contributions to the 2019 Bryan Lovell meeting held at the Geological Society of London. Technologies discussed at the meeting involved decarbonization of electricity production via renewable sources of power generation, substitution of domestic heating using geothermal energy, use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), and more ambitious technologies such as bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) that target negative emissions. It was noted also that growth in renewable energy supply will lead to increased demand for geological materials to sustain the electrification of the vehicle fleet and other low-carbon technologies. The overall conclusion reached at the 2019 Bryan Lovell meeting was that geoscience is critical to decarbonization, but that the geoscience community must influence decision-makers so that the value of the subsurface to decarbonization is understood.

Multiphase flows in porous media are important in many natural and industrial processes. Pore-scale models for multiphase flows have seen rapid development in recent years and are becoming increasingly useful as predictive tools in both academic and industrial applications. However, quantitative comparisons between different pore-scale models, and between these models and experimental data, are lacking. Here, we perform an objective comparison of a variety of state-of-the-art pore-scale models, including lattice Boltzmann, stochastic rotation dynamics, volume-of-fluid, level-set, phase-field, and pore-network models. As the basis for this comparison, we use a dataset from recent microfluidic experiments with precisely controlled pore geometry and wettability conditions, which offers an unprecedented benchmarking opportunity. We compare the results of the 14 participating teams both qualitatively and quantitatively using several standard metrics, such as fractal dimension, finger width, and displacement efficiency. We find that no single method excels across all conditions and that thin films and corner flow present substantial modeling and computational challenges.

Multiphase flows in porous media are important in many natural and industrial processes. Pore-scale models for multiphase flows have seen rapid development in recent years and are becoming increasingly useful as predictive tools in both academic and industrial applications. However, quantitative comparisons between different pore-scale models, and between these models and experimental data, are lacking. Here, we perform an objective comparison of a variety of state-of-the-art pore-scale models, including lattice Boltzmann, stochastic rotation dynamics, volume-of-fluid, level-set, phase-field, and pore-network models. As the basis for this comparison, we use a dataset from recent microfluidic experiments with precisely controlled pore geometry and wettability conditions, which offers an unprecedented benchmarking opportunity. We compare the results of the 14 participating teams both qualitatively and quantitatively using several standard metrics, such as fractal dimension, finger width, and displacement efficiency. We find that no single method excels across all conditions and that thin films and corner flow present substantial modeling and computational challenges.

At the 2015 United Nations International Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21), 197 national parties committed to limit global warming to well below 2°C. But current plans and pace of progress are still far from sufficient to achieve this objective. Here we review the role that geoscience and the subsurface could play in decarbonizing electricity production, industry, transport and heating to meet UK and international climate change targets, based on contributions to the 2019 Bryan Lovell meeting held at the Geological Society of London. Technologies discussed at the meeting involved decarbonization of electricity production via renewable sources of power generation, substitution of domestic heating using geothermal energy, use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), and more ambitious technologies such as bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) that target negative emissions. It was noted also that growth in renewable energy supply will lead to increased demand for geological materials to sustain the electrification of the vehicle fleet and other low-carbon technologies. The overall conclusion reached at the 2019 Bryan Lovell meeting was that geoscience is critical to decarbonization, but that the geoscience community must influence decision-makers so that the value of the subsurface to decarbonization is understood.

Accepted Author Manuscript, Applied Geology

We present a new finite element - finite volume (FEFV) method combined with a realistic equation of state for NaCl-H2O to model fluid convection driven by temperature and salinity gradients. This method can deal with the nonlinear variations in fluid properties, separation of a saline fluid into a high-density, high-salinity brine phase and low-density, low-salinity vapor phase well above the critical point of pure H2O, and geometrically complex geological structures. Similar to the well-known implicit pressure explicit saturation formulation, this approach decouples the governing equations. We formulate a fluid pressure equation that is solved using an implicit finite element method. We derive the fluid velocities from the updated pressure field and employ them in a higher-order, mass conserving finite volume formulation to solve hyperbolic parts of the conservation laws. The parabolic parts are solved by finite element methods. This FEFV method provides for geometric flexibility and numerical efficiency. The equation of state for NaCl-H2O is valid from 0 to 750°C, 0 to 4000bar, and 0-100 wt.% NaCl. This allows the simulation of thermohaline convection in high-temperature and high-pressure environments, such as continental or oceanic hydrothermal systems where phase separation is common

We present the benchmarking of a new finite element - finite volume (FEFV) solution technique capable of modeling transient multiphase thermohaline convection for geological realistic p-T-X conditions. The algorithm embeds a new and accurate equation of state for the NaCl-H2O system. Benchmarks are carried out to compare the numerical results for the various component-processes of multiphase thermohaline convection. They include simulations of (i) convection driven by temperature and/or concentration gradients in a single-phase fluid (i.e., the Elder problem, thermal convection at different Rayleigh numbers, and a free thermohaline convection example), (ii) multiphase flow (i.e., the Buckley-Leverett problem), and (iii) energy transport in a pure H2O fluid at liquid, vapor, supercritical, and two-phase conditions (i.e., comparison to the U.S. Geological Survey Code HYDROTHERM). The results produced with the new FEFV technique are in good agreement with the reference solutions. We further present the application of the FEFV technique to the simulation of thermohaline convection of a 400°C hot and 10 wt.% saline fluid rising from 4km depth. During the buoyant rise, the fluid boils and separates into a high-density, high-salinity liquid phase and a low-density, low-salinity vapor phase

Earthquake-triggered volcanic activity promoted by dynamic and static stresses are considered rare and difficult-to-capture geological processes. Calderas are ideal natural laboratories to investigate earthquake volcano interactions due to their sensitivity to incoming seismic energy. The Campi Flegrei caldera, Italy, is one of the most monitored volcanic systems worldwide. We compare ground elevation time series at Campi Flegrei with earthquake catalogues showing that uplift events at Campi Flegrei are associated with large regional earthquakes. Such association is supported by (yet non-definitive) binomial tests. Over a 70-year time window we identify 14 uplift events, 12 of them were preceded by an earthquake, and for 8 of them the earthquake-to-uplift timespan ranges from immediate responses to 1.2 yr. Such variability in the response delay may be due to the preparedness of the system with faster responses probably occurring in periods during which the Campi Flegrei system was already in a critical state. To investigate the process that may be responsible for the proposed association we simulate the propagation of elastic waves and show that passing body waves impose high dynamic strains at the roof of the magmatic reservoir of the Campi Flegrei at about 7 km depth. This may promote a short-lived embrittlement of the magma reservoir's carapace otherwise marked by a ductile behaviour. Such failure allows magma and exsolved volatiles to be released from the magmatic reservoir. The fluids, namely exsolved volatiles and/or melts, ascend through a nominally plastic zone above the magmatic reservoir. This mechanism and the associated inherent uncertainties require further investigations but the new concept already implies that geological processes triggered by passing seismic waves may become apparent several months after passage of the seismic waves. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this paper, we present an upscaled model for horizontal immiscible displacement in highly heterogeneous media. This type of heterogeneity can be found, for instance, in fractured rock, which consists of two flow domains, a mobile fracture and a virtually immobile matrix. We derive an upscaled double-continuum model capable of predicting flow in mobile-immobile domains using homogenization theory. The model consists of a flow equation for the saturation of displacing fluid in the fracture domain, and a capillary flow equation for saturation in the matrix, which are coupled via a source term. By linearizing capillary counter current flow in the matrix domain, we combine this system of equations into a non-local single-equation model for the fracture saturation, which can be interpreted as a multi-rate mass-transfer (MRMT) model for immiscible displacement. We discuss this simplification and the parametrization of the upscaled model equation from local hydraulic parameters obtained from rock samples and from knowledge of the average flow properties of the fracture network. We demonstrate its performance for predicting two-phase flow by considering a single fracture with imbibition into a rectangular matrix domain. The upscaled model is parameterized directly from geometry and hydraulic parameters of matrix and fracture of the reference model, which means that no parameters need to be fitted. We compare the detailed and upscaled models in terms of breakthrough curves for the displaced fluid at a control plane within the medium. Both the detailed numerical simulations and the upscaled model show a preasymptotic t - 1 / 2 scaling and a breakoff at the characteristic time scale for filling the matrix by counter current flow. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Regional erosion of the Rock Garden ridge top, a bathymetric high within New Zealand’s Hikurangi Subduction Margin, is likely associated with its gas hydrate system. Seismic data reveal gas pockets that appear partially trapped beneath the shallow base of gas hydrate stability. Steady-state fluid flow simulations, conducted on detailed two-dimensional geological models, reveal that anomalous fluid pressure can develop close to the sea floor in response to lower-permeability hydrate-bearing sediments and underlying gas pockets. Transient simulations indicate that large-scale cycling of fluid overpressure may occur on time scales of a few to tens of years. We predict intense regions of hydro-fracturing to preferentially develop beneath the ridge top rather than beneath the flanks, due to more pronounced overpressure generation and gas migration through hydrate-bearing sediments. Results suggest that sediment weakening and erosion of the ridge top by hydro-fracturing could be owed to fluid dynamics of the shallow gas hydrate system.

Regional erosion of the Rock Garden ridge top, a bathymetric high within New Zealand’s Hikurangi Subduction Margin, is likely associated with its gas hydrate system. Seismic data reveal gas pockets that appear partially trapped beneath the shallow base of gas hydrate stability. Steady-state fluid flow simulations, conducted on detailed two-dimensional geological models, reveal that anomalous fluid pressure can develop close to the sea floor in response to lower-permeability hydrate-bearing sediments and underlying gas pockets. Transient simulations indicate that large-scale cycling of fluid overpressure may occur on time scales of a few to tens of years. We predict intense regions of hydro-fracturing to preferentially develop beneath the ridge top rather than beneath the flanks, due to more pronounced overpressure generation and gas migration through hydrate-bearing sediments. Results suggest that sediment weakening and erosion of the ridge top by hydro-fracturing could be owed to fluid dynamics of the shallow gas hydrate system.

The permeability of the Earth's crust commonly varies over many orders of magnitude. Flow velocity can range over several orders of magnitude in structures of interest that vary in scale from centimeters to kilometers. To accurately and efficiently model

Immunologists are already comfortable with the need for monitoring many different gene products simultaneously. It is a common challenge to remember what CD-one-hundred-and-something is, and an ever-increasing number of colours are required for identification on the flow cytometer. Gene expression arrays now offer the possibility of extending this approach beyond the cell surface and expanding it dramatically to survey the entire catalogue of gene transcripts in a lymphoid cell.

We present a new finite element - finite volume (FEFV) method combined with a realistic equation of state for NaCl-H2O to model fluid convection driven by temperature and salinity gradients. This method can deal with the nonlinear variations in fluid properties, separation of a saline fluid into a high-density, high-salinity brine phase and low-density, low-salinity vapor phase well above the critical point of pure H2O, and geometrically complex geological structures. Similar to the well-known implicit pressure explicit saturation formulation, this approach decouples the governing equations. We formulate a fluid pressure equation that is solved using an implicit finite element method. We derive the fluid velocities from the updated pressure field and employ them in a higher-order, mass conserving finite volume formulation to solve hyperbolic parts of the conservation laws. The parabolic parts are solved by finite element methods. This FEFV method provides for geometric flexibility and numerical efficiency. The equation of state for NaCl-H2O is valid from 0 to 750°C, 0 to 4000bar, and 0-100 wt.% NaCl. This allows the simulation of thermohaline convection in high-temperature and high-pressure environments, such as continental or oceanic hydrothermal systems where phase separation is common

We present the benchmarking of a new finite element - finite volume (FEFV) solution technique capable of modeling transient multiphase thermohaline convection for geological realistic p-T-X conditions. The algorithm embeds a new and accurate equation of state for the NaCl-H2O system. Benchmarks are carried out to compare the numerical results for the various component-processes of multiphase thermohaline convection. They include simulations of (i) convection driven by temperature and/or concentration gradients in a single-phase fluid (i.e., the Elder problem, thermal convection at different Rayleigh numbers, and a free thermohaline convection example), (ii) multiphase flow (i.e., the Buckley-Leverett problem), and (iii) energy transport in a pure H2O fluid at liquid, vapor, supercritical, and two-phase conditions (i.e., comparison to the U.S. Geological Survey Code HYDROTHERM). The results produced with the new FEFV technique are in good agreement with the reference solutions. We further present the application of the FEFV technique to the simulation of thermohaline convection of a 400°C hot and 10 wt.% saline fluid rising from 4km depth. During the buoyant rise, the fluid boils and separates into a high-density, high-salinity liquid phase and a low-density, low-salinity vapor phase