Modeling vertical stratification of CO2 injected into a deep layered aquifer

The vertical stratification of carbon dioxide (CO2) injected into a deep layered aquifer made up of high-permeability and low-permeability layers, such as Utsira aquifer at Sleipner site in Norway, is investigated with a Buckley–Leverett equation including gravity effects. In a first step, we study both by theory and simulation the application of this equation to the vertical migration of a light phase (CO2), in a denser phase (water), in 1D vertical columns filled with different types of porous media: homogeneous, piecewise homogeneous, layered periodic and finally heterogeneous. For each case, we solve the associated Riemann problems and propose semi-analytical solutions describing the spatial and temporal evolution of the light phase saturation. These solutions agree well with simulation results. We show that the flux continuity condition at interfaces between high-permeability and low-permeability layers leads to CO2 saturation discontinuities at these interfaces and, in particular, to a saturation increase beneath low-permeability layers. In a second step, we analyze the vertical migration of a CO2 plume injected into a 2D layered aquifer. We show that the CO2 vertical stratification under each low-permeability layer is induced, as in 1D columns, by the flux continuity condition at interfaces. As the injection takes place at the bottom of the aquifer the velocity and the flux function decrease with elevation and this phenomenon is proposed to explain the stratification under each mudstone layer as observed at Sleipner site.