TY - JOUR
T1 - A Novel Experimental Study on Density-Driven Instability and Convective Dissolution in Porous Media
AU - Guo, Ruichang
AU - Sun, Hanxing
AU - Zhao, Qingqi
AU - Li, Zihao
AU - Liu, Yang
AU - Chen, Cheng
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021/12/16
Y1 - 2021/12/16
N2 - Geological carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration (GCS) in deep saline aquifers is a promising solution to mitigate the impact of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on global climate change. CO2 dissolved in formation water increases the solution density and can lead to miscible density-driven downward convection, which significantly accelerates the dissolution trapping of injected CO2. Experimental studies on miscible density-driven convection have been limited. In the laboratory, we found an empirical linear correlation between reflected green light intensity and solute concentration, which enabled in situ measurements of solute concentrations in the spatial and temporal domains and consequently the mass flux across the top boundary of the porous medium. Using the novel experimental techniques, we determined the critical Rayleigh-Darcy number and critical time scales for the onset of density-driven instability and convective dissolution. This is the first study to determine these critical system parameters using laboratory experiments.
AB - Geological carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration (GCS) in deep saline aquifers is a promising solution to mitigate the impact of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on global climate change. CO2 dissolved in formation water increases the solution density and can lead to miscible density-driven downward convection, which significantly accelerates the dissolution trapping of injected CO2. Experimental studies on miscible density-driven convection have been limited. In the laboratory, we found an empirical linear correlation between reflected green light intensity and solute concentration, which enabled in situ measurements of solute concentrations in the spatial and temporal domains and consequently the mass flux across the top boundary of the porous medium. Using the novel experimental techniques, we determined the critical Rayleigh-Darcy number and critical time scales for the onset of density-driven instability and convective dissolution. This is the first study to determine these critical system parameters using laboratory experiments.
KW - Rayleigh-Darcy number
KW - convective dissolution
KW - density-driven instability
KW - experimental study
KW - geological carbon sequestration
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U2 - 10.1029/2021GL095619
DO - 10.1029/2021GL095619
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121052577
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 48
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 23
M1 - e2021GL095619
ER -