Rock and Soil Mechanics ›› 2024, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (11): 3447-3460.doi: 10.16285/j.rsm.2023.6880

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Influencing factors of caprock sealing performance for multi-layer CO2 injection

MA Ji-yuan1, 2, CHENG Guo-qiang3, LI Xia-ying1, 2, YANG Ling-xue3, LI Qi1, 2, MA Jing3, CHEN Bo-wen1, 2, YANG Chuan-feng3, ZHANG Yao1, 2, LI Feng-yang3, YU Tao1, 2, HU Ting3, XU Zong-hong3, ZHONG Yi-yan1, 2   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430071, China; 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Institute of Hydroenvironmental Geology, Yinchuan, Ningxia 750011, China
  • Online:2024-11-11 Published:2025-07-29
  • About author:MA Ji-yuan, male, born in 1999, Master’s student, focusing on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). E-mail:majiyuan999999@163.com
  • Supported by:
    the Innovative Group Project of the Joint Funds of National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2244215), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2021CFA030) and the Ningxia Carbon Dioxide Geological Storage Survey, Test and Demonstration Project (TZZD/ NZC220120C).

Abstract: Due to the heterogeneity and low permeability of most CO2 reservoirs in China, CO2 storage within a single reservoir is difficult to meet the demand for emission reduction. To achieve large-scale CO2 geological storage, multi-formation injection technology has been proposed to increase the amount of CO2 geological storage. To explore the main influencing factors on the caprock sealing performance under the condition of multi-formation CO2 injection, the seepage-stress coupling simulation analysis was carried out. Pore pressure, displacement, and incremental Coulomb failure stress (CFS) are used as the basis for evaluating the caprock sealing performance. The tornado analysis method was used for sensitivity analysis to select the factors that have a significant impact on the caprock sealing performance. The research results indicate that the more injection layers, the smaller the displacement, pore pressure, and CFS of the caprock, and the better the caprock sealing performance. However, if the number of layers exceeds 3, the efficiency increase brought by the number of layers will no longer be significant; The main controlling factors for the sealing performance of the caprock include the Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus of the caprock, thickness and permeability coefficient of the reservoir, and injection rate; When the thickest caprock is located at the topmost part of the entire formation, the caprock sealing performance is the best, producing the smallest vertical displacement, pore pressure, and △CFS.

Key words: CO2 geological storage, caprock sealing performance, multi-formation injection, sensitivity analysis, Coulomb failure stress