Hydrodynamics and Metering of Two-Phase (Liquid/Dense Gas) Flow for Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage

Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) is viewed as an integral component of Net Zero strategy, with significant projects ongoing and planned in both Brazil [1] and UK [2]. Offshore storage sites are provided by depleted oil/gas reservoirs; the process of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which simultaneously injects carbon dioxide (CO2) into the reservoir while maintaining production, is an important energy transition technique. Brazilian deep water reservoirs pose unique challenges, including high pressure and high CO2 content in the produced fluids, which must be separated and reinjected.

Accurate metering of fluids, whether extracted from or injected into oil/gas reservoirs, is a long-standing technical challenge, due to the complex composition and behaviour of such fluids [2]. Current multiphase flow metering technologies use two-phase flow mathematical models developed from experimental data unrepresentative of ultra-deep water production conditions. Indeed, there is a lack globally of experimental and calibration facilities that can support and validate the development of flow instrumentation for pure and mixed CO2 streams under EOR and CCUS process conditions [2].

The proposal has three themes:

1. The dense gas sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) may be used in experimental simulation of typical deep water hydrodynamic conditions for oil and CO2 in the supercritical thermodynamic state, but operating at much lower pressures, thereby significantly reducing capital expenditure (capex), operational expenditure (opex) and safety issues. The University of São Paulo (USP) has built an oil/SF6 two-phase experimental facility to simulate high density CO2 flows [3]. It is planned to compare experimental results with those obtained at National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) - the UK's National Flow Laboratory, operating the world's largest multiphase flow facility - in order to evaluate the suitability of SF6 as a low cost experimental substitute.

2. Flow patterns...