1 © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd | Greenhouse Gas Sci Technol. 1–14 (2014); DOI: 10.1002/ghg
Received June 4, 2014; revised July 17, 2014; accepted July 18, 2014
Published online at Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/ghg.1466
Modeling and Analysis
Modeling of pressure build-up and
estimation of maximum injection rate
for geological CO
2
storage at the
South Scania site, Sweden
Zhibing Yang , Auli Niemi , Liang Tian , and Saba Joodaki , Uppsala University, Sweden
Mikael Erlström , Geological Survey of Sweden, Lund, Sweden
Abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO
2
) injection in deep saline formations causes pressure increase which
may be detrimental to the mechanical integrity of the storage reservoir. Injection induced pressure
build-up is a limiting factor for CO
2
injection rates and storage capacity. In this study, we extend a
semi-analytical solution (based on one-dimensional, two-phase, two-component radial flow) for appli-
cation to estimate pressure build-up and maximum injection rate of CO
2
at a field site (South Scania,
Sweden) using the method of superposition of image well solutions to account for the straight-line
boundaries imposed by three fault zones. The semi-analytical approach for estimating pressure build-
up is validated by comparison to numerical simulations based on TOUGH2-ECO2N. We analyze
injection pressure sensitivity due to uncertainty in reservoir parameters as well as boundary conditions.
Maximum injection rates and pressure limited capacity estimates are presented. This work demon-
strates the use of semi-analytical solutions to analyze pressure limitation on storage capacity for
realistic reservoirs with irregular (non-circular) boundaries. It is also shown that the semi-analytical
approach can also be used to evaluate the benefit of having multiple injection wells in terms of increas-
ing the injection-pressure-limited storage capacity. The methodology presented in this study is useful
for screening analysis of storage sites as well as for operation design and optimization where pressure
build-up as a limiting factor influences the objective function.
© 2014 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Keywords: geological storage; pressure-limited capacity; numerical modeling; analytical solution;
mechanical failure
Correspondence to: Zhibing Yang, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
E-mail: zhibing.yang@hyd.uu.se
Introduction
R
eduction of atmospheric greenhouse gas concen-
trations can be achieved by carbon capture and
storage (CCS). Implementation of CCS requires
sequestrating a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO
2
)
preferably in the deep saline formations. For closed
formations, the pore space needed for storing CO
2
is accommodated by enlargement of the rock pore
space and at the same time reduction in the volume of
the formation fuid, through compression of the rock
material and the formation fuid, respectively.
1
For