Influence of heterogeneities and upscaling on CO2 storage prediction at large scale in deep saline aquifer

What are the effects of spatial variability of permeability on CO2 migration and pressure response to CO2 injection in saline aquifer at industrial scale? Since the extension and intensity of perturbations will be constrained by the geological characteristics of the aquifer, spatial variability will be a key parameter for injectivity and capacity of storage projects. Predictions at regional or basin scale implies the study of geological model of millions grid cells. But for efficient simulations of multiphase flow, the number of grid cells need to be reduced. The purpose of this work is also to evaluate homogenization or simplification methods of permeability field that could be sufficiently accurate for CO2 storage predictions. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.