Project Description

The objective of this project is to develop and carry out experiments that establish the conditions in which dissolved CO2 in water precipitates, forms bubbles, and moves through a laboratory chamber filled with glass beads (Figure 1c and d). A fundamental question that is important to successful geologic containment of CO2 is the following: Given that CO2-brine plumes will form and sink throughout an aquifer/reservoir, does the water have to be saturated with CO2 in order for it to come out of solution following a shock? I hypothesize that the conditions in which CO2 comes out of solution are dependent upon the magnitude of the shock and the partial pressure of the CO2; bubble ascent through porous media is a function of the permeability and density of bubbles, which is in turn a function of the initial dissolved CO2 concentration.