Coupling Models of Different Complexity for the Simulation of CO2 Storage in Saline Aquifers

Abstract Modelling CO2 storage in saline aquifers on a reservoir scale, for example, for feasibility studies and risk analyses is very demanding with respect to computational cost due to the complex geometries that need to be described and due to the diversity of interacting hydraulic, thermal, mechanical, and geochemical processes. In most cases it is not necessary to be able to describe all these processes for the whole simulation time period or for the entire model domain. Within this paper it is outlined how model coupling could help in reducing the model complexity and increasing model efficiency while the relevant processes are still taken into account. Since the work on this topic is at an early stage, this paper is restricted to a discussion of coupling concepts.

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