The path to a more stable climate is complex and divisive. To enable a quick and equitable transition several solutions will be required. They may include the development of techniques to remove CO2 from the environment, greener materials, and sustainable energy sources. Carbon Capture and Storage is a popular elimination option that scientists are investigating. The process entails, CO2 would be taken from industrial sources and injected into deep geological reservoirs underground. However, it will presumably be kept there for thousands of years, similar to how water is stored in aquifers. This may become a problem; however, not much investigation has occurred on the subject.
The TACC (Texas Advanced Computing Center) recently used supercomputers to understand better how CO2 storage works at the level of micrometer-wide pores in the rock. Further, they also identified the traits and elements that can assist in optimizing how much CO2 can be stored. The discoveries of the research are highly relevant for the Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration Market as it provides factors for safe and successful carbon capture and storage.
The team investigated CO2 trapping efficiency in saline aquifers by dissolving the gas in the resident brine. They experimented with many situations, including varied injection rates and fluid-rock characteristics. The objective was to see how the parameters affect the percentage of injected CO2 that the dissolution mechanism can trap.
Researchers discovered that injection rate (the rate at which supercritical CO2 is forced into the reservoir)and wettability (or how well CO2 molecules cling to the surface of the rock) had a considerable impact on the strength of CO2 that could be stored in the gaps inside the rocks.
Capillary trapping occurs when CO2 pinches off and becomes immobilized in the pore space due to capillary forces. It was discovered that it is another effective method that ensures the security of CO2 storage.
The study presents the results of pore-scale, two-phase flow simulations that used digital versions of natural rocks from a CO2 storage test site in Cranfield, Mississippi. The idea was to investigate how CO2 migrated through the pore structure of the rock during the injection stage. Further, the investigation was also made into the way it could be trapped as immobilized blobs in the storage stage.
According to researchers, supercomputers are one of the most essential tools available to geoscientists for studying carbon capture and storage processes. In this sector, computational fluid dynamics approaches are critical for better screening viable target reservoirs for CO2 storage. Moreover, they also facilitate the prediction of the behavior of CO2 plumes in these reservoirs.