title: Study of the fluid flow characteristics in a porous medium for CO2 geological storage using MRI.
abstract: The objective of this study was to understand fluid flow in porous media. Understanding of fluid flow process in porous media is important for the geological storage of CO2. The high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique was used to measure fluid flow in a porous medium (glass beads BZ-02). First, the permeability was obtained from velocity images. Next, CO2-water immiscible displacement experiments using different flow rates were investigated. Three stages were obtained from the MR intensity plot. With increasing CO2 flow rate, a relatively uniform CO2 distribution and a uniform CO2 front were observed. Subsequently, the final water saturation decreased. Using core analysis methods, the CO2 velocities were obtained during the CO2-water immiscible displacement process, which were applied to evaluate the capillary dispersion rate, viscous dominated fractional flow, and gravity flow function. The capillary dispersion rate dominated the effects of capillary, which was largest at water saturations of 0.5 and 0.6. The viscous-dominant fractional flow function varied with the saturation of water. The gravity fractional flow reached peak values at the saturation of 0.6. The gravity forces played a positive role in the downward displacements because they thus tended to stabilize the displacement process, thereby producing increased breakthrough times and correspondingly high recoveries. Finally, the relative permeability was also reconstructed. The study provides useful data regarding the transport processes in the geological storage of CO2.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning 116024, China.
authors.forename: Yongchen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning 116024, China. Electronic address: lanlan@dlut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lanlan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning 116024, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning 116024, China.
authors.forename: Mingjun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning 116024, China.
authors.forename: Xinhuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning 116024, China.
authors.forename: Yuechao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning 116024, China.
authors.forename: Binlin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: North Japan New Energy Research Center, Hirosaki University, Aomori City 0300813, Japan.
authors.forename: Abuliti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abudula
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, Kizugawa City, Kyoto 6190292, Japan.
authors.forename: Ziqiu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xue
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D004058:Diffusion; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016062:Porosity; D012212:Rheology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D002245:Carbon Dioxide
keywords: CO(2) immiscible displacement; CO(2) storage; MRI; Relative permeability; Velocity