The Role of Miscible Gas Mixing on CO2-Enhanced Methane Recovery

Abstract Depleted gas reservoirs are viable choices for large-scale CO2 storage and to displace remaining methane volumes to further increase the storage capacity (EGR). However, deployment of such projects depends on an informed knowledge of the magnitude of mixing of the miscible gases, efficiency in displacing in-situ methane by CO2, composition of the produced gas, and CO2 storage capacity. This study focuses on the fundamental analysis of mixing during CO2-EGR using a numerical approach. We propose to conduct very fine grid compositional simulations to provide insights into the mixing of CO2 and methane in a gas reservoir at different reservoir and operational conditions. We first analyze a stratified layer model to understand the basic mechanisms of scale-dependency of dispersion and the significance of reservoir heterogeneity on fluid mixing. To consider more realistic reservoir heterogeneity, a two-dimensional stochastic reservoir model is analyzed to estimate dispersivity generated as fluids flow in porous media at different scales. Reservoir heterogeneity is represented by the Dykstra Parsons coefficient (VDP) and autocorrelation length, and fluid properties are modeled depending on pressure and temperature conditions. Field-scale simulation is also performed to discuss the way dispersion is modeled in reservoir simulation affects simulated gas recovery. Our study shows that the variance of permeability and convective spreading are the primary causes of fluid mixing at any scale. In addition, molecular diffusion is not always negligible in gas mixing even in large-scale heterogeneous reservoirs since gas has much larger diffusivity than liquid. Furthermore, the mechanism of fluid mixing during CO2-EGR is complex with the interplay between convective spreading, transverse dispersion (including molecular diffusion), and gravity segregation. Although geoscientists often assume numerical dispersion can represent physical dispersion, our study indicates this is an oversimplification and could cause significant errors in calculated gas recovery. Permeability heterogeneity is essential for the dispersion growth process and the final displacement behavior. Reservoir heterogeneity should be modeled with high-resolution grid models to analyze mixing behaviors more accurately.