Experimental Study of CO2 Injection into Saline Formations

Abstract We present experiments at the laboratory scale to investigate the influence of gravitational, viscous and capillary effects on the CO2 injection process. Two-dimensional experiments are performed in a vertical glass-bead pack, in the parameter range of practical flows, i.e. with Bond numbers of about 10-3, and capillary numbers of the order 10-4. Experiments are carried out primarily to demonstrate the type of flow regimes that occur under favorable as well as unfavorable conditions of density and viscosity. Experiments demonstrate the existence of pore scale instability in the presence of unfavorable gradients of viscosity and density, and as such, appear to be incapable of being modeled by conventional means. A comparison with estimates from percolation theory shows good agreement with experimental observations.