Laboratory experiments have shown that oil production from sandstone and carbonate reservoirs by waterflooding could be significantly increased by manipulating the composition of the injected water (e.g. by lowering the ionic strength). Recent studies suggest that a change of wettability induced by a change in surface charge is likely to be one of the driving mechanism of the so-called low-salinity effect. In this case, the potential increase of oil recovery during waterflooding at low ionic strength would be strongly impacted by the inter-relations between flow, transport and chemical reaction at the pore-scale. Hence, a new numerical model that includes two-phase flow, solute reactive transport and wettability alteration is implemented based on the Direct Numerical Simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations and surface complexation modelling. Our model is first used to match experimental results of oil droplet detachment from clay patches. We then study the effect of wettability change on the pore-scale displacement for simple 2D calcite micro-models and evaluate the impact of several parameters such as water composition and injected velocity. Finally, we repeat the simulation experiments on a larger and more complex pore geometry representing a carbonate rock. Our simulations highlight two different effects of low-salinity on oil production from carbonate rocks: a smaller number of oil clusters left in the pores after invasion, and a greater number of pores invaded.@en

Understanding pore-scale flow and transport processes is important for understanding flow and transport within rocks on a larger scale. Flow experiments on small-scale micromodels can be used to experimentally investigate pore-scale flow. Current manufacturing methods of micromodels are costly and time consuming. 3D printing is an alternative method for the production of micromodels. We have been able to visualise small-scale, single-phase flow and transport processes within a 3D printed micromodel using a custom-built visualisation cell. Results have been compared with the same experiments run on a micromodel with the same geometry made from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA, also known as Perspex). Numerical simulations of the experiments indicate that differences in experimental results between the 3D printed micromodel and the Perspex micromodel may be due to variability in print geometry and surface properties between the samples. 3D printing technology looks promising as a micromodel manufacturing method; however, further work is needed to improve the accuracy and quality of 3D printed models in terms of geometry and surface roughness.@en

Microporosity is commonly assumed to be non-connected porosity and not commonly studied in geoengineering industry. However, the presence of micropores plays a key role in connecting macropores and it can contribute significantly to the overall flow performance. In this study, targeted CO2 storage carbonate fields in Southeast Asia have significant amounts of microporosity ranging from 10 to 60% of the total measured porosity. Microporosity can only be seen in high resolution images. To study the unresolved and the resolved microporosity, Middle Miocene carbonate samples from CO2 storage candidate fields were scanned using lower resolution micro-computed micro-tomography (micro-CT) and higher resolution synchrotron light source to understand the pore scale structure of the carbonate sample at different length scales. This paper proposes a proof-of-concept upscaling method that integrates multiscale 3D imaging techniques and trendline analysis to establish porosity-permeability relationships with microporosity insight. After image acquisition and processing, the images were divided into smaller sub-volumes. Pore-scale modelling was conducted to predict the permeability using Darcy-Brinkman-Stokes (DBS) model. Then, a nano-scale porosity-permeability transform is generated using natural log trendline fitting based on simulation results. The porosity-permeability transform is further extended to three cases to cover the low case, mid case, and high case of datapoint fittings and is further validated with laboratory measured data. The established porosity-permeability transforms in this study have been applied to compare with petrophysical derived porosity-permeability transforms with better performance (higher R2 value) for low permeability datapoint. The multiscale imaging upscaling workflow has integrated machine learning during image segmentation with pore-scale modelling and trendline fitting during the upscaling study. It emphasises the importance of seeing the unseen (unresolved microporous phase) to understand the internal texture and microstructure of a rock sample in order to understand the connectivity of the overall flow performance in a carbonate rock.@en

The traditional model of solid dissolution in porous media consists of three dissolution regimes (uniform, compact, wormhole)-or patterns-that are established depending on the relative dominance of reaction rate, flow, and diffusion. In this work, we investigate the evolution of pore structure using numerical simulations during acid injection on two models of increasing complexity. We investigate the boundaries between dissolution regimes and characterize the existence of a fourth dissolution regime called channeling, where initially fast flow pathways are preferentially widened by dissolution. Channeling occurs in cases where the distribution in pore throat size results in orders of magnitude differences in flow rate for different flow pathways. This focusing of dissolution along only dominant flow paths induces an immediate, large change in permeability with a comparatively small change in porosity, resulting in a porosity-permeability relationship unlike any that has been previously seen. This work suggests that the traditional conceptual model of dissolution regimes must be updated to incorporate the channeling regime for reliable forecasting of dissolution in applications like geothermal energy production and geologic carbon storage.@en