Influence of Clay Wettability Alteration on Relative Permeability

Ming Fan; James E. McClure; Ryan T. Armstrong; Mehdi Shabaninejad; Laura E. Dalton; Dustin Crandall; Cheng Chen

doi:10.1029/2020GL088545

Influence of Clay Wettability Alteration on Relative Permeability

Ming Fan, James E. McClure, Ryan T. Armstrong, Mehdi Shabaninejad, Laura E. Dalton, Dustin Crandall, Cheng Chen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Understanding the wettability of porous materials is important to model fluid flow in the subsurface. One of the critical factors that influences wetting in real reservoirs is the composition of geologic materials. The wetting properties for clay minerals can have a particularly strong impact on flow and transport. In this work, we analyze the chemical composition of a Mt. Simon sandstone core to resolve the microscopic structure of clay regions and assess how alterations to the local wetting properties influence multiphase transport based on core flooding experiments and relative permeability simulations. We show that whichever fluid has greater affinity toward clay minerals will tend to accumulate within these high surface area regions, leading to dramatic shifts in the relative permeability. This work establishes the essential importance of the mineral composition and associated wetting properties in the modeling of flow and transport in reservoir-scale systems.

Original language	English
Article number	e2020GL088545
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	47
Issue number	18
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088545
State	Published - Sep 28 2020
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors are thankful to the financial support provided by the University Coalition for Fossil Energy Research (UCFER) Program under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) through the Award Number DE‐FE0026825 and Subaward Number S000038‐USDOE, as well as the support from NETL's Research Participation Program sponsored by the U.S. DOE and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). An award of computer time was provided by the Department of Energy INCITE program and the Summit Early Science Program. This research also used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported under Contract DE‐AC05‐00OR22725.

Funders	Funder number
University Coalition for Fossil Energy Research
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science	DE‐AC05‐00OR22725
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
National Energy Technology Laboratory	DE‐FE0026825

Keywords

carbon sequestration
contact angle
illite
pore-scale modeling
two-fluid flow
wetting

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1029/2020GL088545

Cite this

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title = "Influence of Clay Wettability Alteration on Relative Permeability",

abstract = "Understanding the wettability of porous materials is important to model fluid flow in the subsurface. One of the critical factors that influences wetting in real reservoirs is the composition of geologic materials. The wetting properties for clay minerals can have a particularly strong impact on flow and transport. In this work, we analyze the chemical composition of a Mt. Simon sandstone core to resolve the microscopic structure of clay regions and assess how alterations to the local wetting properties influence multiphase transport based on core flooding experiments and relative permeability simulations. We show that whichever fluid has greater affinity toward clay minerals will tend to accumulate within these high surface area regions, leading to dramatic shifts in the relative permeability. This work establishes the essential importance of the mineral composition and associated wetting properties in the modeling of flow and transport in reservoir-scale systems.",

keywords = "carbon sequestration, contact angle, illite, pore-scale modeling, two-fluid flow, wetting",

author = "Ming Fan and McClure, {James E.} and Armstrong, {Ryan T.} and Mehdi Shabaninejad and Dalton, {Laura E.} and Dustin Crandall and Cheng Chen",

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AU - Fan, Ming

AU - McClure, James E.

AU - Armstrong, Ryan T.

AU - Shabaninejad, Mehdi

AU - Dalton, Laura E.

AU - Crandall, Dustin

AU - Chen, Cheng

PY - 2020/9/28

Y1 - 2020/9/28

N2 - Understanding the wettability of porous materials is important to model fluid flow in the subsurface. One of the critical factors that influences wetting in real reservoirs is the composition of geologic materials. The wetting properties for clay minerals can have a particularly strong impact on flow and transport. In this work, we analyze the chemical composition of a Mt. Simon sandstone core to resolve the microscopic structure of clay regions and assess how alterations to the local wetting properties influence multiphase transport based on core flooding experiments and relative permeability simulations. We show that whichever fluid has greater affinity toward clay minerals will tend to accumulate within these high surface area regions, leading to dramatic shifts in the relative permeability. This work establishes the essential importance of the mineral composition and associated wetting properties in the modeling of flow and transport in reservoir-scale systems.

AB - Understanding the wettability of porous materials is important to model fluid flow in the subsurface. One of the critical factors that influences wetting in real reservoirs is the composition of geologic materials. The wetting properties for clay minerals can have a particularly strong impact on flow and transport. In this work, we analyze the chemical composition of a Mt. Simon sandstone core to resolve the microscopic structure of clay regions and assess how alterations to the local wetting properties influence multiphase transport based on core flooding experiments and relative permeability simulations. We show that whichever fluid has greater affinity toward clay minerals will tend to accumulate within these high surface area regions, leading to dramatic shifts in the relative permeability. This work establishes the essential importance of the mineral composition and associated wetting properties in the modeling of flow and transport in reservoir-scale systems.

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KW - contact angle

KW - illite

KW - pore-scale modeling

KW - two-fluid flow

KW - wetting

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Influence of Clay Wettability Alteration on Relative Permeability

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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