Numerical Modeling of CO₂ Migration in Saline Aquifers of Selected Areas in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland

• Main Authors: Tomasz Urych, Adam Smoliński
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-08-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: geological CO₂ storage; saline aquifers; hydraulic fracturing; numerical simulation; reservoir characterization
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/16/3093

Determining the characteristics of the dynamic behavior of carbon dioxide in a rock mass is a stage in the process of assessing a potential CO₂ storage reservoir. The aim of this study was to analyze the process of CO₂ storage in saline aquifers of the selected regions of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland. The construction of dynamic simulation models was based on static models of real deposit structures developed on a regional scale. Different simulation variants of the CO₂ storage process were adopted, varying in terms of injection efficiency and duration of individual simulation phases. The analysis examined the influence of the degree of hydrodynamic openness of the structure on the CO₂ storage process, in each of the variants. The results of numerical simulations showed that among the three analyzed geological formations, the Dębowiec formation is the most prospective for potential CO₂ storage and is characterized by the most favorable geological and hydrogeological parameters. In the best variant of the simulation, in which the safety of CO₂ storage in the rock mass was taken into account, the total amount of CO₂ injected in a single directional well was approximately 8.54 million Mg of CO₂ during 25 years of injection.