Exploring the influences of salinity on CO2 plume migration and storage capacity in sloping formations: A numerical investigation

Accurate evaluation of CO2 plume migration, potential leakage, and storage capacity are the main challenges for CO2 geological storage (CGS). This study develops a suite of numerical models, focusing on the Shiqianfeng Formation of the Shenhua-Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration project in the Ordos Basin, China, aiming to numerically evaluate the influence of combining salinity, dip angle, and faulting factors on CO2 plume migration, storage amount, conversion of gas and dissolved phase states. Simulation results show that lower salinity and larger dip angles result in earlier CO2 leakage. Increasing salinity from 0.00 to S in a 10° sloping formation causes later CO2 leakage (205–260 years). Lower salinity enhances CO2 plume migration, injection amount, and dissolved-phase CO2. As the salinity decreased from S to 0.00 in a 3° sloping formation over 120 years of CO2 migration, the dissolved CO2 plume migration increased by 9.1 %, the total CO2 amount increased by 70.0 %, and the proportion of dissolved CO2 increased by 13.07 %. Compared to formation dip angle, salinity has a more significant impact on the plume migration of dissolved CO2. However, CO2 storage safety decreases with increasing dip angle. The conversion proportion (1.88 %–9.75 %) of gas-phase to dissolved CO2 increased with an increasing dip angle and decreasing salinity for the first 100 years after injection ceased. Thus, we conclude that salinity, dip angle and faulting are important factors during CGS, and this study may provide a practical reference for further studies for evaluating CO2 storage potential.