2nd Meeting of the Geological Storage Modelling Network

Publication Overview

The second meeting of the IEAGHG International Research Network on CO2 Geological Storage Modelling was hosted by the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, on February 16th and 17th, 2010. The meeting comprised four technical sessions: Modelling Methodology and Recent Advances, Integrated Roles and Objectives of Modelling, Modelling of Real Storage Projects; Case Studies and International Efforts towards Best Practice and Modelling Protocols. The agenda was designed to provide ample time for discussions between participants, with breakout groups in sessions 1 and 2, and plenary discussions following sessions 3 and 4. Discussions following Session 1 focussed on recent advances in modelling. Current theoretical and laboratory scale research has continued to advance our understanding of the processes which will control the behaviour of stored CO2 in the subsurface and govern potential leakage mechanisms. However, there was a consensus that an increased number of large-scale storage projects are required to provide data with which modelling methods can be calibrated

Publication Summary

Discussions following Session 1 focussed on recent advances in modelling. Current theoretical and laboratory scale research has continued to advance our understanding of the processes which will control the behaviour of stored CO2 in the subsurface and govern potential leakage mechanisms. However, there was a consensus that an increased number of large-scale storage projects are required to provide data with which modelling methods can be calibrated. Priorities for modelling R&D were discussed after the presentations in Session 2. Topics that participants felt were of pressing concern for modellers and in need of further research included:

• Storage engineering options, e.g. brine extraction;
• Wettability and relative permeability;
• Rates of CO2 dissolution into formation brines;
• Efficiency of capillary trapping;
• Coupling of processes, and the merits of modelling processes separately to aid up scaling (the ‘divide and conquer’ approach);
• Realistic boundary conditions for flow modelling.