Geological Storage of CO_2: Modelling of transport in fractured or faulted media

The characterisation of candidate sites for geological storage of CO_2 is most likely highly uncertain and based on geostatistical methods. Therefor, the assessment of storage potential needs to be done in a statistical framework. This requires fast numer ical methods to create multiple realizations for screening, e.g., streamline or semi-analytical methods. Typically fractures and wells provide conduits for leakage and needs to be modelled by the simulator tools. In the proposed project, PhD student Håko n Hægland will develop streamline methods to handle CO_2 transport through fractured or faulted media. In particular he will develop streamline methods for irregular and nonconforming grids that are typically created by the modelling of fractured or fault ed zones. The work will be done at Princeton University, USA, in collaboration with Professor Michael A. Celia. The work will be a part of Hægland's PhD project entitled "Streamline Calculations for Multiphase Flow on Irregular Grids" (see attachment), which is part of the project "Reservoir Simulation on a Geological Scale" financed by the Norwegian Research Council (see http://www.sintef.no/static/AM/GeoScale/).