Magnetic resonance imaging analysis on the in-situ mixing zone of CO2 miscible displacement flows in porous media

The in-situ mixing zone represents dynamic characteristics of CO2 miscible displacement flows, which is important for carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) projects. However, the migration characteristics of the in-situ mixing zone under reservoir conditions has been neither well studied nor fully understood. The in-situ mixing zone with the flowing mixture of supercritical CO2 and n-decane (nC(10)) was investigated by using a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus at a reservoir condition of 8.5 MPa and 37.8 degrees C in porous media. The experimental results showed that the CO2-frontal velocity was larger than the mixing-frontal velocity. The mixing zone length was linearly declined in the miscible displacement process. And the declining rate of the mixing zone length was increased with injection rate. It indicates that the mixing zone length is not constant in a vertically stable CO2 misible displacement and a volume contraction due to phase behavior effects may occur. Then, an error function based on the convection-dispersion equation was fitted with CO2 miscible displacement experiments. The error function was well fitted both at a series of fixed core positions and a series of fixed displacement times. Furthermore, the longitudinal dispersion coefficients (K-lx and K-lt) and the longitudinal Peclet numbers (Pe(d) and Pe(L)) were quantified from the fitting results. The evolutions of the longitudinal dispersion coefficient were reduced along the displacement time. And the declining rate was increased with injection rate. And with proceeding, the longitudinal dispersion coefficient was tending towards stability and constant. But the evolutions of the longitudinal Peclet numbers were increased along the displacement time. And the increasing rate was increased with injection rate. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.