Convective Dissolution in Field Scale CO2 Storage Simulations Using the OPM Flow Simulator

In this work we introduce an accurate and efficient way of including the effect of convective mixing in field scale 3D simulations. The effect of the convective mixing is included in the field scale simulations by introducing a maximum dissolution rate given by the convective mixing. This maximum dissolution rate is computed internally based on both dynamic and static properties as well as a non-dimensional input parameter. The non-dimensional input parameter upscales the effect of the convective mixing and is estimated from fine-scale simulations. Our approach differs from existing models where the maximum dissolution rate is given directly as an input parameter to the simulator and not scaled by the properties of the cell. The proposed convective dissolution rate model shows good agreement with finescale simulation shown in this work as well as in the literature. The model is further tested on the 3D Sleipner Benchmark model. Results on the Sleipner Benchmark model confirm the importance of including the effect of the convective dissolution in the simulation both for the injection period and during the monitoring phase as it significantly affects the pressure build-up and decay during the simulations. The proposed model is implemented in the open source OPM Flow simulator which immediately makes it available to the community for usage and adoption. This paper also gives an overview of the CO2 storage module implemented in OPM Flow.