Wettability-controlled phase transition in displacement- and trapping
efficiency in 3D porous media: A micro-CT study
Abstract
Background: Capillary trapping of gas bubbles and oil blobs within
water-saturated media plays an important role for underground gas
storage and secondary oil recovery. Wettability and roughness of the
surface are elementary properties of a porous medium that determine the
trapping efficiency. In previous work [1,2], we demonstrated that
glass beads and natural sands display a significant difference (15%) of
the trapped gas phase. Here, we carry out a systematic study of the
capillary trapping efficiency in dependence of the wettability and
surface roughness. Methods: We conducted a series of column experiments
to study capillary trapping of gaseous CO2 using both glass beads and
natural sands as sediments. Based on the high-resolution non-invasive
micro-CT visualization method and subsequent image processing, we
quantified capillary trapping efficiency, gas-cluster morphology and
gas-cluster size distribution. We used the silanization method for
varying degrees of wettability resulting in three different contact
angles on microscopic soda lime glass slides: (i) Piranha cleaning (=
7°), (ii) untreated glass (= 30°) and (iii) silanized glass (=100°).
Results: We observed that by-pass trapping is the dominant trapping
mechanism in glass beads (smooth surfaces). The displacement process is
piston-like. For natural sands (rough surface), thick film flow occurs,
causing an efficient snap-off trapping mechanism. Our results indicate
that the capillary trapping efficiency of natural sands is stronger
reduced by a transition from water-wet to CO2-wet 3-phase system
(increasing contact angle) when compared to glass beads. [1] H.
Geistlinger, I. Ataei-Dadavi, S. Mohammadian, and H.-J. Vogel (2015) The
Impact of Pore structure and Surface Roughness on Capillary Trapping for
2D- and 3D-porous media: Comparison with Percolation theory. Special
issue: Applications of Percolation theory, Water Resour Res, 51,
doi:10.1002/2015WR017852. [2] H. Geistlinger, I. Ataei-Dadavi, and
H.-J. Vogel (2016) Impact of Surface Roughness on Capillary Trapping
Using 2D-Micromodel Visualization Experiments. Transport in Porous Med.,
DOI 10.1007/s11242-016-0641-y.