Geological Storage of CO₂, Modelling of transport in fractured or faulted media

The characterization of candidate sites for geological storage of CO₂ is most likely highly uncertain and based on geostatistical methods. Therefore, the assessment of storage potential needs to be done in a statistical framework. This requires fast numerical methods to create multiple realizations for screening, e.g,.streamline or semi-analytical methods. Typically fractures and wells provide conduits for leakage and needs to be modelled by the simulator tools. In the proposed project, PhD student Håkon Hægland will develop streamline methods to handle CO₂ transport through fractured or faulted media. In particular he will develop streamline methods for irregular and nonconforming grids that are typically created by the modelling of fractured or faulted zones. The work will be done at Princeton University, USA, in collaboration with Professor Michael A. Celia. The work will be a part of Hægland's PhD project entitled "Streamline Calculations for Multiphase Flowon Irregular Grids" (see attachment), which is part of the project "Reservoir Simulation on a Geological Scale" financed by the Norwegian Research Council.