Decarbonization: Mineral fixation simulation in CCS

Among CO2 trapping mechanisms, mineral trapping, which fixes CO2 as carbonate minerals, is a highly safe method!

It takes hundreds to thousands of years to mineralize a large amount of CO2, and it is known that depending on the mineral composition of the reservoir, the amount of mineralization may not be significant. Recently, however, there are methods like the Carbfix project that allow for mineralization within basalt in just a few years. To estimate the amount of mineralization and the time required for it, CO2 flow simulations that include geochemical reaction calculations (possible with simulators like GEM and TOUGH-REACT) are necessary. In addition to the usual CO2 flow calculations, solving for parameters related to geochemical reactions can lead to a large number of unknowns, resulting in high computational costs and difficulties in convergence. Furthermore, the input data for geochemical reaction calculations often includes highly uncertain factors such as the reactive surface area of minerals, making sensitivity analysis and uncertainty analysis effective. Based on the above, JOE primarily uses the reservoir simulator GEM to investigate and examine the following items: [Investigation and Examination Items] - Setting appropriate chemical reaction data for simulation convergence - Setting chemical reaction equations and evaluating the uncertainty of input data related to chemical reactions - Examining issues in scaling up from experimental data to reservoir data

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