In-situ disposal of CO2: Liquid and supercritical CO2 permeability in coal at multiple down-hole stress conditions

Abstract Geological CO 2 sequestration is one of the most effective methods to counter global climate change. Coal matrix shrinkage, swelling, gas diffusion and permeability are the key phenomena associated with geological CO 2 disposal in coal. In this study, permeability experiments were approached using the supercritical and liquid phases of CO 2 (less understood; most likely insitu phases) for naturally fractured bituminous coal. Experiments were performed under triaxial conditions using four sets of various confinement conditions corresponding to variable depths. Injection pressure was varied gradually and the permeability changes were calculated using the Darcy’s equation for subcritical and supercritical CO 2 exclusively. Changes in CO 2 phases were obtained by changing the system temperature from 26° C for liquid CO 2 to 34 °C for supercritical CO 2 . N 2 was alternatively injected at the start and between the injections of CO 2 to analyze the changes in the permeability from a relatively very less sorptive medium’s perspective. It was observed that the supercritical CO 2 flow reduced the permeability significantly and this behavior was greatly attributed to the highly viscous nature of the supercritical phase and the high volumetric deformation or the swelling of coal under supercritical CO 2 as compared to liquid CO 2 . The injection pressures were observed to reduce the effective stress behavior, which in turn pushed the permeability evolution at each confinement to a positive trend. However, the permeability of CO 2 reduced exponentially with increasing effective stresses. Two different empirical equations were proposed for permeability of both the phases of CO 2 with effective stresses.

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