A Study on the CO2-Enhanced Water Recovery Efficiency and Reservoir Pressure Control Strategies

Abstract

CO2 geological storage (CGS) proved to be an effective way to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and CO2-enhanced water recovery (CO2-EWR) technology may improve the efficiency of CO2 injection and saline water production with potential economic value as a means of storing CO2 and supplying cooling water to power plants. Moreover, the continuous injection of CO2 may cause a sharp increase for pressure in the reservoir system, so it is important to determine reasonable reservoir pressure control strategies to ensure the safety of the CGS project. Based upon the typical formation parameters of the China Geological Survey CO2-EWR test site in the eastern Junggar Basin, a series of three-dimensional (3D) injection-extraction models with fully coupled wellbores and reservoirs were established to evaluate the effect of the number of production wells and the well spacing on the enhanced efficiency of CO2 storage and saline production. The optimal key parameters that control reservoir pressure evolution over time are determined. The numerical results show that a smaller spacing between injection and production wells and a larger number of production wells can enhance not only the CO2 injection capacity but also the saline water production capacity. The effect of the number of production wells on the injection capacity and production capacity is more significant than that of well spacing, and the simulation scenario with 2 production wells, one injection well, and a well spacing of 2 km is more reasonable in the demonstration project of Junggar Basin. CO2-EWR technology can effectively control the evolution of the reservoir pressure and offset the sharp increase in reservoir pressure caused by CO2 injection and the sharp decrease of reservoir pressure caused by saline production. The main controlling factors of pressure evolution at a certain spatial point in a reservoir change with time. The monitoring pressure drops at the beginning and is controlled by the extraction of water. Subsequently, the injection of CO2 plays a dominant role in the increase of reservoir pressure. Overall, the results of analysis provide a guide and reference for the CO2-EWR site selection, as well as the practical placement of wells.