Characterization and modeling of CO2‐water‐rock interactions in Hygiene Sandstones (Upper Cretaceous), Denver Basin, aimed for carbon dioxide geological storage

Carbon capture and geological storage are among the most valuable technologies capable of reducing CO2 emissions. Long‐term interactions between CO2 and a reservoir, and the integrity of geological formations, are key factors in the selection of adequate reservoirs for permanent storage. Numerical models of CO2‐water‐rock geochemical interactions are often employed to predict the fate of CO2 stored in a reservoir over time. The Hygiene Sandstone, in the Denver Basin, Colorado, USA, is a geological formation with potential for CO2 storage, and was therefore studied in this work, in which we collected and characterized outcrop samples in order to supply the input parameters for numerical simulations. Four representative thin sections of Hygiene Sandstone outcrops were quantified in terms of detrital constituents, diagenesis, and porosity on the basis of conventional petrography. Sandstone mineralogy included, in decreasing order, quartz, K‐feldspar, muscovite, albite, illite, smectite, kaolinite, poikilotopic calcite, and siderite. Porosity ranged from 4% to 13%. A geochemical modeling study of CO2‐water‐rock interactions performed with two characterized samples and brine data from the Hygiene Sandstones, simulating reservoir conditions, suggested that the mineralogy of the sandstone is quite stable under the conditions that were tested and only minor mineralogical and porosity alterations would occur within a thousand years of storage. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.