Effects of gravity on flow behaviour of supercritical CO2 during enhanced gas recovery and sequestration

A core flooding experiment was carried out to simulate an Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) process to inject supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SCO 2 ) into a core sample saturated with methane (CH 4 ). This was done to investigate the flow behaviour of the injected SCO 2 at the flow conditions when the injection orientation was switched from horizontal to vertical during the CH 4 displacement. From the results, it was found that gravity has significant effects on the flow behaviour of SCO 2 at lower flowrates; more pronounced is the seemingly lower permeability in the horizontal orientation compared with the vertical orientation. So the choice of the injection pattern or direction during EGR by SCO 2 injection for the purpose of additional recovery of CH 4 and subsequent sequestration of the injected CO 2 should be made in conjunction with the determination of optimum injection rate for efficient injectivity.