Monitoring of CO2 plume migration in deep saline formations with kinetic interface sensitive tracers (a numerical modelling study for the laboratory)

Abstract

Monitoring CO2 plume migration in deep saline aquifers is essential for improving the design and operation of the storage. Therefore, the development of new efficient monitoring techniques is an on-going area of research. Tracer techniques have been extensively used to study the movement of gas and liquids in porous media systems. Their main advantage is that they can provide direct information about the hydraulic, transport and reactive processes and parameters of the reservoir. Kinetic interface sensitive (KIS) tracers represent a novel class of reactive tracers for quantifying the interfacial area between CO2 and brine and its development with time. The theoretical development of KIS tracers is described, including the conceptual and mathematical models. Through numerical modelling, a sensitivity analysis with regard to the key flow and transport parameters of CO2 storage reservoir is performed.