Special Session on:
CO2 Sequestration

Conveners:

Ruben Juanes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Holger Class, Universitat Stuttgart

Featured Speakers:

Jan Martin Nordbotten, University of Bergen, "Novel approaches for modeling migration and trapping at geologic scale"
Hamdi Tchelepi, Stanford University, "Nonlinear solver based on flux-function trust-regions for accurate modeling of CO2 plume migration in aquifers"

Description:

The injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) into deep geological formations is a promising tool for reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change. To achieve a climate-relevant contribution, large-scale implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects is required. However, at present, most CCS projects operate at the pilot scale, and provide only very limited data. Lack of data is a major challenge for mathematical and numerical models to be applied on large scales. Moreover, many aspects of the fundamental physics of migration and trapping of CO2 are not fully understood, and incorporating the relevant small-scale processes into the large-scale domains of interest is a pressing challenge for current simulation tools. This session seeks contributions that address these challenges, to improve our fundamental understanding of geologic CO2 storage, our ability to model it at different scales, and to assess risk with few data available.

We encourage submissions that address one or more of the following topics, among others: (1) Pore-scale processes of CO2 displacement, dissolution and reactions; (2) Migration and trapping at the geologic scale; (3) Novel modeling approaches for CO2-brine subsurface flows; (4) High-resolution simulation of CO2-brine unstable flows (viscous, capillary, and gravity instabilities); (5) Computational strategies for data assimilation and monitoring; (6) Methods for risk assessment that deal with uncertainty and data scarcity; (7) Evaluation of leakage through wells and faults by coupling flow with geomechanics; (8) Modeling of enhanced geothermal systems and enhanced oil recovery with CO2 as a working fluid.