Geomechanical Issues in CO2 Storage Facilities

CO2 capture and geological storage is seen as the most effective technology to rapidly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Up until now and before proceeding to an industrial development of this technology, laboratory research has been conducted for several years and pilot projects have been launched. So far, these studies have mainly focused on transport and geochemical issues and few studies have been dedicated to the geomechanical issues in CO2 storage facilities. The purpose of this book is to give an overview of the multiphysics processes occurring in CO2 storage facilities, with particular attention given to coupled geomechanical problems. The book is divided into three parts. The first part is dedicated to transport processes and focuses on the efficiency of the storage complex and the evaluation of possible leakage paths. The second part deals with issues related to reservoir injectivity and the presence of fractures and occurrence of damage. The final part of the book concerns the serviceability and ageing of the geomaterials whose poromechanical properties may be altered by contact with the injected reactive fluid.

Auteur

Gilles Pijaudier-Cabot is Professor at University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour, Pau, France. Jean-Michel Pereira is Reasearcher at Laboratory Navier - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, Marne-la-Vallée, France.

Contenu
Preface xi

PART 1. TRANSPORT PROCESSES 1

Chapter 1. Assessing Seal Rock Integrity for CO2 Geological Storage Purposes 3
Daniel BROSETA

1.1. Introduction 3

1.2. Gas breakthrough experiments in water-saturated rocks 6

1.3. Interfacial properties involved in seal rock integrity 9

1.3.1. Brine-gas IFT 9

1.3.2. Wetting behavior 10

1.4. Maximum bottomhole pressure for storage in a depleted hydrocarbon reservoir 12

1.5. Evidences for capillary fracturing in seal rocks 13

1.6. Summary and prospects 14

1.7. Bibliography 15

Chapter 2. Gas Migration through Clay Barriers in the Context of Radioactive Waste Disposal: Numerical Modeling of an In Situ Gas Injection Test 21
Pierre GÉRARD, Jean-Pol RADU, Jean TALANDIER, Rémi de La VAISSIÈRE, Robert CHARLIER and Frédéric COLLIN

2.1. Introduction 21

2.2. Field experiment description 23

2.3. Boundary value problem 26

2.3.1. 1D and 3D geometry and boundary conditions 26

2.3.2. Hydraulic model 27

2.3.3. Hydraulic parameters 28

2.4. Numerical results 29

2.4.1. 1D modeling 30

2.4.2. 3D modeling 34

2.5. Discussion and conclusions 37

2.6. Bibliography 39

Chapter 3. Upscaling Permeation Properties in Porous Materials from Pore Size Distributions 43
Fadi KHADDOUR, David GRÉGOIRE and Gilles PIJAUDIER-CABOT

3.1. Introduction 43

3.2. Assembly of parallel pores 44

3.2.1. Presentation 44

3.2.2. Permeability 45

3.2.3. Case of a sinusoidal multi-modal pore size distribution 47

3.3. Mixed assembly of parallel and series pores 48

3.3.1. Presentation 48

3.3.2. Permeability 49

3.4. Comparisons with experimental results 51

3.4.1. Electrical fracturing tests 51

3.4.2. Measurement of the pore size distribution 53

3.4.3. Model capabilities to predict permeability and comparisons with experiments 54

3.5. Conclusions 55

3.6. Acknowledgments 55

3.7. Bibliography 56

PART 2. FRACTURE, DEFORMATION AND COUPLED EFFECTS 57

Chapter 4. A Non-Local Damage Model for Heterogeneous Rocks Application to Rock Fracturing Evaluation Under Gas Injection Conditions 59
Darius M. SEYEDI, Nicolas GUY, Serigne SY, Sylvie GRANET and François HILD

4.1. Introduction 60

4.2. A probabilistic non-local model for rock fracturing 61

4.3. Hydromechanical coupling scheme 63

4.4. Application example and results 66

4.4.1. Effect of Weibull modulus 70

4.5. Conclusions and perspectives 70

4.6. Acknowledgments 71

4.7. Bibliography 71

Chapter 5. Caprock Breach: A Potential Threat to Secure Geologic Sequestration of CO2 75
A.P.S. SELVADURAI

5.1. Introduction 75

5.2. Caprock flexure during injection 77

5.2.1. Numerical results for the caprockgeologic media interaction 81

5.3. Fluid leakage from a fracture in the caprock 85

5.3.1. Numerical results for fluid leakage from a fracture in the caprock 89

5.4. Concluding remarks 90

5.5. Acknowledgment 91

5.6. Bibliography 91

Chapter 6. Shear Behavior Evolution of a Fault due to Chemical Degradation of Roughness: Application to the Geological Storage of CO2 95
Olivier NOUAILLETAS, Céline PERLOT, Christian LA BORDERIE, Baptiste ROUSSEAU and Gérard BALLIVY

6.1. Introduction 96

6.2. Experimental setup 97

6.3. Roughness and chemical attack 99

6.4. Shear tests 103

6.5. Peak shear strength and peak shear displacement: Barton's model 107

6.6. Conclusion and perspectives 112

6.7. Acknowledgment 113

6.8. Bibliography 113 **Chapter 7. CO2 Storage in Coal Seams: Cou...