Impedance Characteristics of Berea Sandstone Cores in the Process of CO<sub>2</sub> Injection Displacement with Saturated Brine

Abstract

As an important means of CO<sub>2</sub> geological storage leakage monitoring, resistivity monitoring technology is of great significance to the safety and stability of CCUS project. In order to study the electrical signal response rule of the evolution of CO<sub>2</sub> saturation in the reservoir, a joint core displacement experiment system of electrochemical impedance analysis and microfocus X-ray CT was designed and constructed to simulate the process of CO<sub>2</sub> displacement of brine in Berea sandstone cores under stratigraphic temperature and pressure conditions. The electrochemical impedance characteristics of the core-fluid system are analyzed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The experimental results show that at lower temperature and pressure, it is more difficult for CO<sub>2</sub> to invade the pore space occupied by the brine in situ, resulting in drastic changes in CO<sub>2</sub> plane saturation along the displacement direction. With the increase of temperature and pressure, the CO<sub>2</sub> saturation curve becomes smoother and the migration and displacement front becomes even. The Cole equivalent circuit model is used to describe the conduction mode of AC electrical signals inside the core, and the electrochemical impedance characteristic analysis focusing on the high frequency region shows that the system impedance increases with the increase of CO<sub>2</sub> saturation, and decreases with the increase of scanning frequency. In addition, the changes of impedance characteristics in the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy not only reflect the pore structure characteristics of the core, but also reveal the evolution law of CO<sub>2</sub> saturation in the porous medium. With the increase of CO<sub>2</sub> saturation, the low pore space is gradually occupied by CO<sub>2</sub>, and the residual brine connectivity of the pore space as a conductive component decreases. The decrease of the internal conductive circuit leads to the rapid increase of the impedance, which is consistent with the change of resistance and capacitance when fitting the Cole equivalent circuit model.