Gas exsolution and flow during supersaturated water injection in porous media: II. Column experiments and continuum modeling

Degassing and in situ development of a mobile gas phase takes place when an aqueous phase equilibrated with a gas at a pressure higher than the subsurface pressure is injected in water-saturated porous media. This process, which has been termed supersaturated water injection (SWI), is a novel and hitherto unexplored means of introducing a gas phase in the subsurface. We give herein a first macroscopic account of the SWI process on the basis of continuum scale simulations and column experiments with CO2 as the dissolved gas. A published empirical mass transfer correlation [Nambi IM, Powers SE. Mass transfer correlations for nonaqueous phase liquid dissolution from regions with high initial saturations. Water Resour Res 2003;39(2):1030. doi:10.1029/2001WR000667] is found to adequately describe non-equilibrium transfer of CO2 between the aqueous and gas phases. Remarkably, the dynamics of gas–water two-phase flow, observed in a series of SWI experiments in homogeneous columns packed with silica sand or glass beads, are accurately predicted by traditional two-phase flow theory and the corresponding gas relative permeability is determined. A key consequence of this finding, namely that the displacement of the aqueous phase by gas is compact at the macroscopic scale, is consistent with pore scale simulations of repeated mobilization, fragmentation and coalescence of large gas clusters (i.e., large ganglion dynamics) driven entirely by mass transfer. The significance of this finding for the efficient delivery of a gas phase below the water table is discussed in connection to the alternative process of in situ air sparging, and potential advantages of SWI are highlighted.