Improving the worthiness of the Elder problem as a benchmark for buoyancy driven convection models

Nature Precedings : doi:10.1038/npre.2008.2633.1 : Posted 10 Dec 2008Improving the worthiness of the Elder problem as a benchmark for buoyancy driven convection modelsMaarten van Reeuwijk, Simon A. MathiasThe Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringImperial College London (Email: m.vanreeuwijk@imperial.ac.uk)Craig T. Simmons, James D. WardSchool of Chemistry, Physics and Earth SciencesFlinders University, AustraliaThis work was partially funded through the WorleyParsons EcoNomicsTM initiative.2008 Virtual Conference on Climate Change and CO Storage2Imperial College London and Second NatureNature Precedings : doi:10.1038/npre.2008.2633.1 : Posted 10 Dec 2008AbstractAn important trapping mechanism associated with the geosequestration ofCO is that of dissolution into the formation water. Although supercritical CO2 2is significantly less dense than water, experimental data reported in theliterature show that the density of an aqueous solution of CO could be2slightly greater. Under normal situations, the transfer of gas to solution islargely controlled by the relatively slow process of molecular diffusion.However, the presence of variable densities can trigger off gravity instabilitiesleading to much larger-scale convection processes. Such processes canpotentially enhance rates of dissolution by an order of magnitude.Consequently there is a need for future performance assessment models toincorporate buoyancy driven convection (BDC).A major ...