Demonstration of gas-hydrate assisted carbon dioxide storage through horizontal injection in lab-scale reservoir

Abstract Depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs are known to provide an opportunity for CO 2 sequestration. A new 5300 cm 3 stainless steel high pressure chamber (crystallizer), employing horizontal CO 2 injection, is used to demonstrate the sequestration of CO 2 , via hydrate crystallization, in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs. The crystallizer was employed to carry out laboratory injection trials. A bed of silica sand with a porosity of 0.35 and a water saturation of 0.22 was used in these experiments. CO 2 is sequestered into the crystallizer by constant flow rate (1200 cm 3 /h) followed by constant pressure CO 2 injection. This method has been shown to increase CO 2 hydrate formation compared to only using constant pressure CO 2 injection. Experimental pressures (pressure targets) ranging from 2.2 MPa to 3.2 MPa at 277 K are investigated. A total storage density of 126.6 kg·m −3 is found 24 h after the start of injection at a pressure target of 3.2 MPa.