Modeling CO2 flow through faulted/fractured reservoirs using tEDFM in corner-point grids

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2026

Abstract

AbstractThe interest in underground CO2 storage has increased significantly over the last decade because of the rising concern about global warming due to the growing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Considering that CO2 accounts for 80% of these greenhouse gases, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is regarded as one of the most direct approaches to achieving the net zero carbon target. Although CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers and depleted gas reservoirs has been studied extensively, most studies use commercial simulators that model faults/fractures by simply modifying the transmissibility in the direction perpendicular to the fault surfaces. This work shows that this simplistic approach ignores the accelerated flow in the directions parallel to the fault plane, leading to significantly higher leakage along the fault surface. To accurately model the flow of CO2 in faulted reservoirs, we present the first transient embedded discrete fracture model for corner-point grids (tEDFM-CPG). By comparing the results of the tEDFM-CPG to high-resolution reference solutions, we show that this approach is accurate and efficient at predicting CO2 flow in faulted/fractured reservoirs. Finally, this work presents the use of mixed reality (MR) to efficiently observe CO2 gas migration in the interior of these corner-point grid systems.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Geoenergy Science and Engineering

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS