Carbon Sequestration
The overproduction of carbon dioxide emissions is one of biggest challenges facing humankind over the next century. As outlined in the Paris Agreement (2015), it is necessary to limit global warming to less than 2
oC by the year 2100 to avoid the most dangerous consequences of climate change. To meet these temperature targets it is imperative to reduce our CO
2 emissions quickly, and by as much as possible.
One of the few proposed technological solutions to this problem is carbon capture and storage (CCS) - that is, capturing CO
2 at source (e.g. power plants and factories) and injecting it into porous geological reservoirs to be sequestered (stored), either by dissolution or trapping in the rock pores and boundaries (see image to the right, taken from [1]).
The complex flow patterns involved during CO
2 sequestration, together with the multi-scale nature of the process (with rock variations from the millimetre to the kilometre), presents several modelling challenges. I use tools from fluid dynamics and applied mathematics, such as self-similarity and asymptotic analysis, to gain insights into the factors that affect CO
2 migration, and to help improve the overall safety and efficiency of CO
2 sequestration in porous geological reservoirs. Check out papers [2,3] for more details!
[1] Huppert, H. and Neufeld, J.A. The Fluid Mechanics of Carbon Dioxide Sequestration, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 46:255–72, (2014).
[2] Benham, G.P., Bickle, M.J., Neufeld, J.A. Upscaling multiphase viscous-to-capillary transitions in heterogeneous porous media, J. Fluid Mech. 911, (2021).
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[3] Benham, G.P., Bickle, M.J., Neufeld, J.A. Two-phase gravity currents in layered porous media, J. Fluid Mech. 922, (2021).
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