Abstract
Abstract We study the effect of upscaling (based on single-phase properties) on buoyancy-driven vertical flow of CO 2 . The mechanism of CO 2 immobilization of interest in this situation is local capillary trapping, resulting from competition between buoyancy and capillarity in fine-scale heterogeneity. Different degrees of coarsening are considered and based on average gas saturation and mass of CO 2 in storage aquifer, these upscaling methods are found to underestimate the extent of local capillary trapping. Then, we upscale the simulation of a leak at the top seal of the aquifer after buoyancy-driven flow has stabilized, again with the single phase upscaling method. The predicted amount of escaped gas is larger for the upscaled simulations, and as such, single-phase upscaling appears to underestimate the security of CO 2 sequestration in heterogeneous formations. Using a corrected value of residual gas saturation in coarse-grid simulations is shown to give an acceptable result for the mass percent of escaped CO 2 .
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