Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks

We quantify the influence of the initial nonwetting-phase saturation and porosity on the residual nonwetting-phase saturation using data in the literature and our own experimental results on sandpacks and consolidated sandstones. These experiments were conducted at ambient or elevated pressure and t...

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Main Authors: Iglauer, Stefan, Wuelling, W., Pentland, C., Al-Mansoori, S., Blunt, M.
Format: Journal Article
Published: SOC PETROLEUM ENG 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8913
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author Iglauer, Stefan
Wuelling, W.
Pentland, C.
Al-Mansoori, S.
Blunt, M.
author_facet Iglauer, Stefan
Wuelling, W.
Pentland, C.
Al-Mansoori, S.
Blunt, M.
author_sort Iglauer, Stefan
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description We quantify the influence of the initial nonwetting-phase saturation and porosity on the residual nonwetting-phase saturation using data in the literature and our own experimental results on sandpacks and consolidated sandstones. These experiments were conducted at ambient or elevated pressure and temperature (ETP) conditions. The principal application of this work is for carbon capture and storage (CCS) where capillary trapping is a rapid and effective way to render the injected CO2 immobile, guaranteeing safe storage. We introduce the concept of capillary-trapping capacity (Ctrap) which is the product of residual saturation and porosity that represents the fraction of the rock volume that can be occupied by a trapped nonwetting phase. We show that the measured trapping capacity reaches a maximum of approximately 11% for porosities of 22%, which suggests an optimal porosity for CO2 storage.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2011
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-89132017-09-13T16:06:54Z Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks Iglauer, Stefan Wuelling, W. Pentland, C. Al-Mansoori, S. Blunt, M. We quantify the influence of the initial nonwetting-phase saturation and porosity on the residual nonwetting-phase saturation using data in the literature and our own experimental results on sandpacks and consolidated sandstones. These experiments were conducted at ambient or elevated pressure and temperature (ETP) conditions. The principal application of this work is for carbon capture and storage (CCS) where capillary trapping is a rapid and effective way to render the injected CO2 immobile, guaranteeing safe storage. We introduce the concept of capillary-trapping capacity (Ctrap) which is the product of residual saturation and porosity that represents the fraction of the rock volume that can be occupied by a trapped nonwetting phase. We show that the measured trapping capacity reaches a maximum of approximately 11% for porosities of 22%, which suggests an optimal porosity for CO2 storage. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8913 10.2118/120960-PA SOC PETROLEUM ENG restricted
spellingShingle Iglauer, Stefan
Wuelling, W.
Pentland, C.
Al-Mansoori, S.
Blunt, M.
Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks
title Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks
title_full Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks
title_fullStr Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks
title_full_unstemmed Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks
title_short Capillary-Trapping Capacity of Sandstones and Sandpacks
title_sort capillary-trapping capacity of sandstones and sandpacks
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8913