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Advances in Fluid Transport for Sustainable Energy and Environment in Subsurface Systems

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "H: Geo-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 6680

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Qingwang Yuan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
Interests: single and multiphase flows in subsurface porous media; hydrodynamic instabilities; in situ hydrogen generation from petroleum reservoirs; enhanced oil recovery
Dr. Bowen Ling

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Interests: flow and transport in porous media; microfluidic experiments; computational fluid dynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Subsurface systems are a key element in energy transition and play an important role in the sustainability of energy and environment. They provide multiple functions, including the extraction of geo-energy such as geothermal and hydrocarbons, the mining of rare earth elements, and the large-scale geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen. The use of a subsurface system for the affordable, clean extraction of resources and the efficient mitigation of climate change requires deep understanding of fluid transport coupled with multi-physics in complex permeable rocks.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advancements related to fluid flows and transport in different subsurface porous media that will benefit a variety of applications, from the sustainable extraction of underground resources to environment mitigation.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to:

  • Understanding fluid transport for cleaner geo-energy production, including geothermal recovery, hydrocarbon recovery, and lithium extraction from reservoir water;
  • Understanding fluid transport for large-scale hydrogen geological storage in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, salt domes, aquifers, and excavated rock caverns;
  • Understanding fluid transport for the mitigation of the environment, including CO2 sequestration in saline aquifer and depleted oil and gas reservoirs, methane leakage from orphaned wells, and contaminate transport in soil and aquifer systems;
  • Fluid transport in homogenous, heterogeneous, and fractured rocks;
  • Fluid flows involving multi-physics such as single (miscible) and multiphase (immiscible) displacements;
  • Fluid flows coupled with heat transfer;
  • Reactive flows;
  • Fluid flows coupled with solid deposition and migration;
  • Recent experimental studies;
  • Classical physics-based modelling for fluid flows;

New approaches using artificial intelligence and machine learning methods.

Dr. Qingwang Yuan
Dr. Bowen Ling
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fluid transport
  • porous media
  • subsurface systems
  • sustainable geo-energy extraction
  • environment and mitigation of climate change

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 8420 KiB  
Article
Pore-Scale Analysis of the Permeability Damage and Recovery during Cyclic Freshwater and Brine Injection in Porous Media Containing Non-Swelling Clays
by Pramod Bhuvankar, Abdullah Cihan and Jen T. Birkholzer
Energies 2023, 16(22), 7568; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16227568 - 14 Nov 2023
Viewed by 790
Abstract
Permeability damage in subsurface porous media caused by clay mobilization is encountered in many engineering applications, such as geothermal energy, water disposal, oil recovery, and underground CO2 storage. During the freshwater injection into rocks containing brine, the sudden decrease in salinity causes [...] Read more.
Permeability damage in subsurface porous media caused by clay mobilization is encountered in many engineering applications, such as geothermal energy, water disposal, oil recovery, and underground CO2 storage. During the freshwater injection into rocks containing brine, the sudden decrease in salinity causes native clay fines to detach and clog pore throats, leading to a significant decline in permeability. The clay fines detach due to weakened net-attractive forces binding them to each other and the grain. Past experiments link this permeability damage on the immediate history of the salinity and the direction of flow. To better understand this phenomenon, we conducted pore-scale simulations of cyclic injection of freshwater and brine into sandstone containing Kaolinite clay. Our simulations establish a link between the clay-fine trajectory and the permeability trend observed by Khilar and Fogler (1983). For a uniform clay size of 3 microns, we observe a permeability decline by two orders of magnitude during freshwater injection with respect to brine injection. Increasing salinity and simultaneously reversing flow direction restores the permeability. The permeability restoration upon reversing the brine flow direction is attributed to the unblocking of pore throats in the reverse direction by the movement of the clay particles along the grain surfaces by the hydrodynamic force and the strong net-attractive force under high salinity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fluid Transport for Sustainable Energy and Environment in Subsurface Systems)
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20 pages, 8790 KiB  
Article
Simulation and Analysis of Proppant Transport Patterns in Wellbore-Fracture Systems
by Jingchen Zhang, Yan Li, Huilu Yang and Xiaodong Guo
Energies 2023, 16(11), 4421; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16114421 - 30 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1207
Abstract
Staged multi-cluster fracturing of horizontal wells is one of the most important tools to achieve efficient development of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. The multi-stage fracturing technique forms complex fractures with multiple clusters and branches in the formation, causing competing diversions leading to [...] Read more.
Staged multi-cluster fracturing of horizontal wells is one of the most important tools to achieve efficient development of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. The multi-stage fracturing technique forms complex fractures with multiple clusters and branches in the formation, causing competing diversions leading to more complex proppant transport patterns, and the proppant placement method determines the flow conductivity of complex fractures, so it is necessary to investigate the proppant transport patterns in complex fractures. To address this issue, a field-scale geometric model is established for numerical simulation, and the multiphase flow diversion pattern in the wellbore, the proppant distribution pattern under different network conditions, and the optimization of different construction parameters are investigated. The results are obtained as follows: the distribution of solid and liquid phases in each cluster of the well conforms to the trend of variable mass flow; the proppant is distributed at the heel end in multiple clusters of fractures, and the sand and liquid are unevenly distributed among clusters of fractures, and the number of branching affects the proppant transport; through sensitivity analysis of the influencing factors, the pumping displacement, fracturing fluid viscosity and proppant particle size are optimized, and the construction parameters of 14 m3/min, 5 mPa·s, 70/140 mesh, 12% sand ratio are determined. This study has a certain guiding significance for the optimization of fracturing parameters in this block. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fluid Transport for Sustainable Energy and Environment in Subsurface Systems)
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18 pages, 33554 KiB  
Article
Viscous Fingering Dynamics and Flow Regimes of Miscible Displacements in a Sealed Hele-Shaw Cell
by Baizheng An, Daniel Solorzano and Qingwang Yuan
Energies 2022, 15(16), 5798; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15165798 - 10 Aug 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1988
Abstract
Miscible viscous fingering occurs when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one in porous media or a Hele–Shaw cell. Such flow instabilities are of particular interest in a variety of applications in flows and displacements in subsurface energy and environment systems. [...] Read more.
Miscible viscous fingering occurs when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one in porous media or a Hele–Shaw cell. Such flow instabilities are of particular interest in a variety of applications in flows and displacements in subsurface energy and environment systems. In this study, we investigate the miscible viscous fingering dynamics experimentally using water to displace glycerol in a sealed Hele–Shaw cell with two wells located in it instead of at the boundary or corners. We comprehensively examine the spatial and temporal variations of fingering dynamics, different flow regimes, and how they are affected by the water injection rate and control of pressure or rate at the outlet. Alongside the widely recognized diffusion-dominated and convection-dominated flow regimes, we identify three new regimes: a slow expansion regime prior to breakthrough, a rapid shrinkage regime immediately after breakthrough, and a uniform, slow expansion regime without fingering instability. Each regime is characterized by interesting flow dynamics, which has not been reported previously. The duration of each regime depends on the water injection rate and whether constant pressure or a constant production rate is applied at the outlet. The variations of swept area, interfacial length, and count of fingers are also quantitatively examined. This study provides new insights into the fundamental mechanisms for miscible fluid displacements in a variety of applications such as CO2 sequestration, hydrogen storage, enhanced oil recovery, and groundwater contaminate remediation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fluid Transport for Sustainable Energy and Environment in Subsurface Systems)
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Review

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30 pages, 4168 KiB  
Review
Progress of Seepage Law and Development Technologies for Shale Condensate Gas Reservoirs
by Wenchao Liu, Yuejie Yang, Chengcheng Qiao, Chen Liu, Boyu Lian and Qingwang Yuan
Energies 2023, 16(5), 2446; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16052446 - 3 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2057
Abstract
With the continuous development of conventional oil and gas resources, the strategic transformation of energy structure is imminent. Shale condensate gas reservoir has high development value because of its abundant reserves. However, due to the multi-scale flow of shale gas, adsorption and desorption, [...] Read more.
With the continuous development of conventional oil and gas resources, the strategic transformation of energy structure is imminent. Shale condensate gas reservoir has high development value because of its abundant reserves. However, due to the multi-scale flow of shale gas, adsorption and desorption, the strong stress sensitivity of matrix and fractures, the abnormal condensation phase transition mechanism, high-speed non-Darcy seepage in artificial fractures, and heterogeneity of reservoir and multiphase flows, the multi-scale nonlinear seepage mechanisms are extremely complicated in shale condensate gas reservoirs. A certain theoretical basis for the engineering development can be provided by mastering the percolation law of shale condensate gas reservoirs, such as improvement of productivity prediction and recovery efficiency. The productivity evaluation method of shale condensate gas wells based on empirical method is simple in calculation but poor in reliability. The characteristic curve analysis method has strong reliability but a great dependence on the selection of the seepage model. The artificial intelligence method can deal with complex data and has a high prediction accuracy. Establishing an efficient shale condensate gas reservoir development simulation technology and accurately predicting the production performance of production wells will help to rationally formulate a stable and high-yield mining scheme, so as to obtain better economic benefits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fluid Transport for Sustainable Energy and Environment in Subsurface Systems)
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