Geo-material microfluidics at reservoir conditions for subsurface energy resource applications

• DOI: 10.1039/c5lc00704f
• Publication Date: 2015-08-20T10:02:03Z
• Authors: Mark L. Porter; Joaquín Jiménez-M...; Ricardo Martinez; Quinn McCulloch; J. William Carey; Hari S. Viswanathan
• Keywords: Micromodel; Brine

Microfluidic investigations of flow and transport in porous fractured media have the potential to play a significant role development future subsurface energy resource technologies. However, majority experimental systems date are limited applicability due operating conditions and/or use engineered material micromodels. We developed high pressure temperature microfluidic system that allows for direct observations within geo-material micromodels (e.g. rock, cement) at reservoir conditions. In this manuscript, we describe system, including our novel micromodel fabrication method works both geo- materials utilizes 3-D tomography images real fractures as templates better represent pore space fracture geometries expected formations. present results highlight advantages using real-rock discuss areas research could benefit from investigations. The experiments include fracture-matrix interaction which water imbibes into shale rock matrix etched fractures, supercritical CO2 (scCO2) displacing brine idealized realistic patterns, three-phase involving scCO2-brine-oil.