Determining residual CO₂ saturation through a dissolution test – Results from the CO2CRC Otway Project

Abstract

Residual CO2 trapping (Sgr-CO2) is a key mechanism for geological CO2 storage. The CO2CRC undertook a sequence of field tests with the aim of comparing different ways of determining Sgr-CO2 including a dissolution test. Dissolution test results show an unexpectedly early breakthrough and low maximum CO2 concentrations in the back- produced water making the data inconclusive when using traditional data interpretation. Here, we consider two conditions to explain the observations: Firstly, residual CO2 is vertically unevenly distributed and, secondly, the fluid and residual CO2 are not in equilibrium. Furthermore, we postulate localised flow channels have formed during the 3- month test period caused by advective flow of CO2-saturated, low pH water leading to transport-controlled mineral dissolution.