Transport in Porous Media, Vol.92, No.2, 439-456, 2012
Quantification of Density-Driven Natural Convection for Dissolution Mechanism in CO2 Sequestration
Dissolution of CO2 into brine causes the density of the mixture to increase. The density gradient induces natural convection in the liquid phase, which is a favorable process of practical interest for CO2 storage. Correct estimation of the dissolution rate is important because the time scale for dissolution corresponds to the time scale over which free phase CO2 has a chance to leak out. However, for this estimation, the challenging simulation on the basis of convection-diffusion equation must be done. In this study, pseudo-diffusion coefficient is introduced which accounts for the rate of mass transferring by both convection and diffusion mechanisms. Experimental tests in fluid continuum and porous media were performed to measure the real rate of dissolution of CO2 into water during the time. The pseudo diffusion coefficient of CO2 into water was evaluated by the theory of pressure decay and this coefficient is used as a key parameter to quantify the natural convection and its effect on mass transfer of CO2. For each experiment, fraction of ultimate dissolution is calculated from measured pressure data and the results are compared with predicted values from analytical solution. Measured CO2 mass transfer rate from experiments are in reasonable agreement with values calculated from diffusion equation performed on the basis of pseudo-diffusion coefficient. It is suggested that solving diffusion equation with pseudo diffusion coefficient herein could be used as a simple and rapid tool to calculate the rate of mass transfer of CO2 in CCS projects.
Keywords:CO2 sequestration;Natural convection;Diffusion coefficient;Dissolution mechanism;Pseudo-diffusion coefficient