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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Modeling supercritical CO2 injection induced rupture of a minor fault embedded in a poroelastic layered reservoir-caprock system

CO2 injection for geologic carbon sequestration involves hydromechanical processes that lead to changes in fluid pressure and stresses that can activate existing faults. This paper presents a new method and workflow of modeling fault activation considering more complex three-dimensional geometry of natural faults using the TOUGH-FLAC multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical simulator. In this method and workflow, FLAC3D mechanical interfaces and TOUGH3 finite volume elements are discretized using computer aided design and gridding software along with a tailored mesh translation routine. The method and workflow are demonstrated with a model of a curved minor fault embedded in a poro-elastic layered reservoir-caprock system. The model is used for a comprehensive sensitivity analysis of fault responses to fault length, injection mass rate, injection schedule, well-fault distance, and well locations versus fault location. Four metrics (CO2 plume, shear state of fault, pressure and stress path at fault monitoring points) are selected to assess CO2 migration, pressure change, and the reactivation of faults. The results reveal that CO2 can bypass around the tip of the minor impermeable fault, building up pressure and poro-elastic stress on both sides that tends to impede fault rupture. Our study shows the benefit of carefully designing the injection to achieve the targeted final storage volume, starting at a relatively low rate for considerable time, and then ramping up the injection rate to the full rate of injection. The initial low injection has two distinct benefits: (1) it allows for the formation of an extensive CO2 plume with a much higher mobility through a low viscosity that will result in a lower pressure for a given injection rate, and (2) it allows for gradual build-up of horizontal poro-elastic stress within the reservoir that will tend to impede activation of steeply dipping faults. The injection scenario starting at a low injection rate, denoted here as conservative injection, can significantly reduce the risk of fault activation as high fluid mobility and reservoir strengthening poro-elastic stress has been established long before reaching the peak injection rates. Moreover, simultaneous injection in two injection wells on both sides of fault can provide further reservoir strengthening through poro-elastic stress buildup acting on a fault under normal faulting stress regime. The findings presented in the paper can provide practical and effective guidance on long-term, safe, and reliable geological CO2 storage.

Cao, Meng↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Thermal Response of a Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage System upon Saturated Steam Injection Using Distributed Temperature Sensing

The effectiveness of a thermal energy storage (TES) system is typically characterized with the help of thermal stratification or temperature gradients along the direction of heat injection, which is typically the flow direction of heat transfer fluid. The steepness of temperature gradients are a direct indicator of the effectiveness or efficiency of the heat storage or dispatch process. The temperature gradient evolution along the packed bed of ceramic particles upon saturated steam injection is presented in this work. Distributed temperature sensing based on optical frequency domain reflectometry was deployed in a packed bed of ceramic particles to capture the thermal front evolution in the axial direction. The physical processes accompanying steam injection in packed beds are complex due to phase change, transitioning two-phase flow, and changes in condensate accumulation. Therefore, the variation of thermal response of the TES system for various steam injection flow rates was experimentally studied using a high-resolution distributed temperature sensing system in a chemically inert alumina particle-packed bed. Distinct zones of different heat transfer modes were observed during the steam injection experiments. A distinct conduction zone, evident from diffuse thermal fronts, was observed at low flow rates, and these thermal gradients became sharper as the flow rate increased. The diffuse thermal fronts in the heat storage media suggest a low exergy efficiency of the TES system, as energy losses started initiating before a significant fraction of the bed was saturated with steam.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Impact of layer thickness and well orientation on caprock integrity for geologic carbon storage

Economic feasibility of geologic carbon storage demands sustaining large storage rates without damaging caprock seals. Reactivation of pre-existing or newly formed fractures may provide a leakage pathway across caprock layers. In this paper, we apply an equivalent continuum approach within a finite element framework to model the fluid-pressure-induced reactivation of pre-existing fractures within the caprock, during high-rate injection of super-critical CO 2 into a brine-saturated reservoir in a hypothetical system, using realistic geomechanical and fluid properties. We investigate the impact of reservoir to caprock layer thickness, wellbore orientation, and injection rate on overall performance of the system with respect to caprock failure and leakage. We find that vertical wells result in locally higher reservoir pressures relative to horizontal injection wells for the same injection rate, with high pressure inducing caprock leakage along reactivated opening-mode fractures in the caprock. After prolonged injection, leakage along reactivated fractures in the caprock is always higher for vertical than horizontal injection wells. Furthermore, we find that low ratios of reservoir to caprock thickness favor high excess pressure and thus fracture reactivation in the caprock. Finally, injection into thick reservoir units thus lowers the risk associated with CO 2 leakage.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

A robust deep learning workflow to predict multiphase flow behavior during geological C O 2 sequestration injection and Post-Injection periods

Simulation of multiphase flow in porous media is essential to manage the geologic CO 2 sequestration (GCS) process, and physics-based simulation approaches usually take prohibitively high computational cost due to the nonlinearity of the coupled physics. This paper contributes to the development and evaluation of a deep learning workflow that accurately and efficiently predicts the temporal-spatial evolution of pressure and CO 2 plumes during injection and post-injection periods of GCS operations. Based on a Fourier Neural Operator, the deep learning workflow takes input variables or features including rock properties, well operational controls and time steps, and predicts the state variables of pressure and CO 2 saturation. To further improve the predictive fidelity, separate deep learning models are trained for CO 2 injection and post-injection periods due to the difference in primary driving force of fluid flow and transport during these two phases. We also explore different combinations of features to predict the state variables. We use a realistic example of CO 2 injection and storage in a 3D heterogeneous saline aquifer, and apply the deep learning workflow that is trained from physics-based simulation data and emulate the physics process. Through this numerical experiment, we demonstrate that using two separate deep learning models to distinguish post-injection from injection period generates the most accurate prediction of pressure, and a single deep learning model of the whole GCS process including the cumulative injection volume of CO 2 as a deep learning feature, leads to the most accurate prediction of CO 2 saturation. For the post-injection period, it is key to use cumulative CO 2 injection volume to inform the deep learning models about the total carbon storage when predicting either pressure or saturation. The deep learning workflow not only provides high predictive fidelity across temporal and spatial scales, but also offers a speedup of 250 times compared to full physics reservoir simulation, and thus will be a significant predictive tool for engineers to manage the long-term process of GCS.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulation study of chemo-mechanical impacts of CO 2 injection in morrow b sandstone reservoir

Here, this study investigates the impacts of geomechanical and geochemical changes on carbon storage in a partially depleted oil reservoir, using results from four different coupled simulation models. Models were used to examine the relative importance of storage mechanisms, and how changing reservoir parameters might affect these mechanisms through time. The study uses data from a Morrowan sandstone reservoir in the Farnsworth Unit (FWU), Ochiltree County, Texas which is currently undergoing CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Partially depleted oil reservoirs such as the FWU offer attractive carbon utilization and/or storage targets because of existing infrastructure and economic benefits from incremental oil recovery as well as tax credits. However, prediction of storage capacity or long-term fluid migration in these fields can be difficult because of the wide variation in formation fluids and operational histories that may have undergone. CO 2 injection can cause complex geomechanical and geochemical responses in a reservoir as a result of interplay between dynamic changes in pore pressure, reservoir temperature, fluid composition, and interactions between formation fluids, CO 2 , and reservoir rock. Thus, multiple coupled numerical simulation models must be developed and used to more precisely understand what CO 2 storage mechanisms are most significant, as well as the long-term fate of the stored CO 2 . Our study used results from hydrodynamic, coupled hydro-geomechanical, coupled hydro-geochemical, and coupled hydro-geomechanical-geochemical models to examine how changes in geomechanical and geochemical properties can impact the injectivity or storage capacity of CO 2 . Models simulated historical field operations and then forward-modeled a water-alternate-gas (WAG) operation for 20 years, followed by a 1000-year post-injection monitoring. The work demonstrates that in this specific reservoir, geomechanical impacts appear to be more significant than any geochemical processes, which showed minimal impact on reservoir properties. Furthermore, these simulation scenarios corroborated other studies showing more than 90% of CO 2 injected are being stored and will remain stored in the reservoir. The study was able to draw on a rich set of data from this currently operational project for the work. Because the Morrow is a widespread oil-bearing reservoir in the midcontinent of the United States and is fairly typical of many sandstone reservoirs elsewhere, the study has significance beyond the boundaries of our field area.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Reactive fluid flow in CO 2 storage reservoirs: A 2‐D pore network model study

Abstract Water acidifies in the presence of CO 2 and prompts mineral dissolution. A 2‐D pore network model scheme is developed to investigate reactive fluid flow in CO 2 storage reservoirs during injection when advective transport prevails. Mineral dissolution satisfies kinetic rate laws and continues until thermodynamic equilibrium is reached. In advection‐dominant regimes, network simulation results show that species concentration, tube enlargement and flow rate can be summarized in terms of the dimensionless Damköhler number Da which is the ratio between advection time along a pore and the reaction time. Reservoirs will tend to experience localized enlargement near injection wells (before water drying) and compact dissolution in the far‐field. The Damköhler number couples with initial pore‐size variability to distort the relationship between mean tube diameter and either local or network‐average flow rates. Both the Damköhler number and pore‐size variability should be considered in field‐scale numerical simulators.

Kim, Seunghee↗
DOE OSTI2021

Synergistic foam stabilization and transport improvement in simulated fractures with polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles: Microscale observation using laser etched glass micromodels

Inaccessibility to direct pore scale observation in hydrocarbon recovery of tight shale formations poses a great challenge to water-energy nexus initiatives and necessitates the use of high throughput technologies to emulate environmentally friendly processes. Herein, we employ a precise glass micromodel fabrication and visualization method to isolate the supercritical CO 2 bubbles surrounded by CO 2 -water lamella prepared in saline produced water stabilized with molecular complexation of zwitterionic surfactants (ZS) and polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles (PECNP). The Selective Laser Enhanced Etching (SLE) technique was selected for micromodel simulation of high-pressure flow. Two representative designs, (1) fracture/micro-crack network 28 and (2) fracture/matrix were etched on fused silica glass with a laser printing machine and scCO 2 foam was injected to study the foamability, propagation, stability, and fluid loss properties. The highly monodispersed and uniformly distributed array of scCO 2 bubbles were detected in flow of scCO 2 foam in highly saline brine containing ionic complexes of positively charged PECNPs and ZS, whereas foam flow with the lamella containing ZS in fractures offered a noticeably large and polydisperse array of scCO 2 bubbles. scCO 2 bubble motion and deformation were traced, and local description of foam flow was visually examined. The confined array of scCO 2 bubbles stabilized by ZS in microcracks was affected by bubble growth and coalescence, whereas the super-populated array of monodispersed scC O2 bubbles with lamella containing complexes of PECNP and ZS were able to fill the channels with stable configurations within the timeframe of comparative stability measurements. The ability of complex fluid to prevent the formation damage was evaluated through fluid loss visualization in micromodels. Probing scCO 2 foam transport in homogenous porous media revealed smaller volume leak-off for scCO 2 foam containing PECNP-ZS ionic complexes.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

WellPINN: Accurate Well Representation for Transient Fluid Pressure Diffusion in Subsurface Reservoirs With Physics‐Informed Neural Networks

Accurate representation of pumping wells is essential for reliable reservoir characterization and simulation of operational scenarios in subsurface flow models. Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) are emerging as a promising alternative to numerical models for reservoir modeling, offering seamless integration of monitoring data and governing physical equations. However, existing PINN-based studies face major challenges in capturing fluid pressure near wells when using a source/sink term, particularly during the early stages after pumping begins. We address this problem by introducing WellPINN, a workflow in which an initially trained PINN infers fluid pressure across the entire reservoir domain using a large equivalent well radius. This initial PINN solution is then locally refined around the well by a set of subdomain PINNs that are trained for smaller equivalent well radii. Continuity across these subdomain interfaces as well as at the initial condition is ensured by hard-constraining each PINN on its subdomain boundary. Our results demonstrate WellPINN as the first workflow of its kind to focus on accurate inference of fluid pressure from pumping rates throughout the entire injection period, significantly advancing the potential of PINNs for inverse modeling and operational scenario simulations. All data and code for this paper are openly available at https://doi.org/10.20350/DIGITALCSIC/17260.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Acoustic velocity and permeability of acidized and propped fractures in shale

We report that from geochemical reactions to proppant emplacement, hydraulic fracturing induces various chemomechanical fracture alterations in shale reservoirs. Hydraulic fracturing through the injection of a vast amount and variety of fluids and proppants has substantial impacts on fluid flow and hydrocarbon production. There is a strong need to improve our understanding on how fracture alterations affect flow pathways within the stimulated rock volume and develop monitoring tools. We have conducted time-lapse rock-physics experiments on clay-rich (carbonate-poor) Marcellus shales to characterize the acoustic velocity and permeability responses to fracture acidizing and propping. Acoustic P- and S-wave velocities and fracture permeability were measured before and after laboratory-induced fracture alterations along with microstructural imaging through X-ray computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy. Our experiments indicate that the S-wave velocity is an important geophysical observable, particularly the S-wave polarized perpendicular to fractures because it is sensitive to fracture stiffness. The acidizing and propping of a fracture decrease its elastic stiffness. This effect is stronger for acidizing, so it is possible that proppant monitoring will be masked by chemical alteration except when propping is highly efficient (i.e., most fractures are propped). However, fracture permeability is undermined by the softening of fracture surfaces due to acidizing, while being greatly enhanced by propping. These contrasting effects on fluid flow in combination with similar seismic attributes indicate the importance of experiments to improve existing rock-physics models, which must include changes to the rock frame. Such improvements are necessary for a correct interpretation of seismic velocity monitoring of flow pathways in stimulated shales.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

SECARB 3D VSP Data

Vertical Seismic Profile data collected in 2009 and 2010 as part of SECARB Phase III Early Test at Cranfield oilfield in Mississippi to determine CO2 induced change from seismic response. Data divided into 3D VSP and Offset VSP folders. Associated Publications: Daley, T. M., Hendrickson, J., & Queen, J. H. (2014). Monitoring CO2 Storage at Cranfield, Mississippi with Time-Lapse Offset VSP – Using Integration and Modeling to Reduce Uncertainty. Energy Procedia, 63, 4240-4248. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.11.459

3D VSP↗
DOE OSTI2020

Effect of Computational Schemes on Coupled Flow and Geo-Mechanical Modeling of CO 2 Leakage through a Compromised Well

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) describes a set of technically viable processes to separate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from industrial byproduct streams and inject it into deep geologic formations for long-term storage. Legacy wells located within the spatial domain of new injection and production activities represent potential pathways for fluids (i.e., CO 2 and aqueous phase) to leak through compromised components (e.g., through fractures or micro-annulus pathways). The finite element (FE) method is a well-established numerical approach to simulate the coupling between multi-phase fluid flow and solid phase deformation interactions that occur in a compromised well system. We assumed the spatial domain consists of a three-phases system: a solid, liquid, and gas phase. For flow in the two fluids phases, we considered two sets of primary variables: the first considering capillary pressure and gas pressure (PP) scheme, and the second considering liquid pressure and gas saturation (PS) scheme. Fluid phases were coupled with the solid phase using the full coupling (i.e., monolithic coupling) and iterative coupling (i.e., sequential coupling) approaches. The challenge of achieving numerical stability in the coupled formulation in heterogeneous media was addressed using the mass lumping and the upwinding techniques. Numerical results were compared with three benchmark problems to assess the performance of coupled FE solutions: 1D Terzaghi’s consolidation, Liakopoulos experiments, and the Kueper and Frind experiments. We found good agreement between our results and the three benchmark problems. For the Kueper and Frind test, the PP scheme successfully captured the observed experimental response of the non-aqueous phase infiltration, in contrast to the PS scheme. These exercises demonstrate the importance of fluid phase primary variable selection for heterogeneous porous media. We then applied the developed model to the hypothetical case of leakage along a compromised well representing a heterogeneous media. Considering the mass lumping and the upwinding techniques, both the monotonic and the sequential coupling provided identical results, but mass lumping was needed to avoid numerical instabilities in the sequential coupling. Additionally, in the monolithic coupling, the magnitude of primary variables in the coupled solution without mass lumping and the upwinding is higher, which is essential for the risk-based analyses.

deformation flow↗
DOE OSTI2015

Radiocarbon as a Reactive Tracer for Tracking Permanent CO 2 Storage in Basaltic Rocks

In view of concerns about the long-term integrity and containment of CO 2 storage in geologic reservoirs, many efforts have been made to improve the monitoring, verification and accounting methods for geologically stored CO 2 . Our project aimed to demonstrate that carbon-14 ( 14 C) could be used as a reactive tracer to monitor geochemical reactions and evaluate the extent of mineral trapping of CO 2 in basaltic rocks. The capacity of a storage reservoir for mineral trapping of CO 2 is largely a function of host rock composition. Mineral carbonation involves combining CO 2 with divalent cations including Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Fe 2+ . The most abundant geological sources for these cations are basaltic rocks. Based on initial storage capacity estimates, we know that basalts have the necessary capacity to store million to billion tons of CO 2 via in situ mineral carbonation. However, little is known about CO2-fluid-rock reactions occurring in a basaltic storage reservoir during and post-CO 2 injection. None of the common monitoring and verification techniques have been able to provide a surveying tool for mineral trapping. The most direct method for quantitative monitoring and accounting involves the tagging of the injected CO 2 with 14C because 14C is not present in deep geologic reservoirs prior to injection. Accordingly, we conducted two CO 2 injection tests at the CarbFix pilot injection site in Iceland to study the feasibility of 14C as a reactive tracer for monitoring CO 2 -fluid-rock reactions and CO 2 mineralization. Our newly developed monitoring techniques, using 14C as a reactive tracer, have been successfully demonstrated. For the first time, permanent and safe disposal of CO 2 as environmentally benign carbonate minerals in basaltic rocks could be shown. Over 95% of the injected CO 2 at the CarbFix pilot injection site was mineralized to carbonate minerals in less than two years after injection. Our monitoring results confirm that CO 2 mineralization in basaltic rocks is far faster than previously postulated.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2011

Influence of Viscous and Capillary Forces on Immiscible Fluid Displacement: Pore-Scale Experimental Study in a Water-Wet Micromodel Demonstrating Viscous and Capillary Fingering

Unstable immiscible fluid displacement in porous media affects geological carbon sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and groundwater contamination by nonaqueous phase liquids. Characterization of immiscible displacement processes at the pore-scale is important to better understand macroscopic processes at the continuum-scale. A series of displacement experiments was conducted to investigate the impacts of viscous and capillary forces on displacement stability and fluid saturation distributions in a homogeneous water-wet pore network micromodel with precisely-microfabricated pore structures. Displacements were studied using seven wetting-nonwetting fluid pairs with viscosity ratios M (viscosity of the advancing nonwetting fluid divided by the viscosity of the displaced wetting fluid) ranging four orders of magnitude from logM = -1.95 to 1.88. The micromodel was initially saturated with either polyethylene glycol 200 (PEG200) or water as a wetting fluid, which was then displaced by a nonwetting alkane fluid under different flow rates. Capillary numbers (Ca) ranged over four orders of magnitude for the reported experiments, from logCa = -5.88 to -1.02. Fluorescent microscopy was used to visualize displacement and measure nonwetting fluid saturation distributions. These experiments extend the classical work by Lenormand et al. by using water-wet micromodels, high-precision fabrication, and enhanced image analysis of the saturation distributions. In the micromodel experiments initially saturated with PEG200, a viscous wetting fluid, unstable displacement occurred by viscous fingering over the whole range of imposed capillary numbers. For the experiments initially saturated with water, unstable displacement occurred by capillary fingering at low capillary numbers. When the viscous forces were increased by increasing the injection rate, crossover into stable displacement was observed for the fluid pairs with M > 0. For unstable displacement experiments applying the same capillary number for the various fluid pairs, nonwetting fluid saturations were higher when capillary fingering was the dominant fingering process compared to viscous fingering. Our saturation distributions are consistent with other published experimental work and confirm the numerical results obtained by Lenormand et al.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Nanosensors as Reservoir Engineering Tools to Map Insitu Temperature Distributions in Geothermal Reservoirs

The feasibility of using nanosensors to measure temperature distribution and predict thermal breakthrough in geothermal reservoirs is addressed in this report. Four candidate sensors were identified: melting tin-bismuth alloy nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles with covalently-attached dye, hollow silica nanoparticles with encapsulated dye and impermeable melting shells, and dye-polymer composite time-temperature indicators. Four main challenges associated with the successful implementation of temperature nanosensors were identified: nanoparticle mobility in porous and fractured media, the collection and detection of nanoparticles at the production well, engineering temperature sensing mechanisms that are both detectable and irreversible, and inferring the spatial geolocation of temperature measurements in order to map temperature distribution. Initial experiments were carried out to investigate each of these challenges. It was demonstrated in a slim-tube injection experiment that it is possible to transport silica nanoparticles over large distances through porous media. The feasibility of magnetic collection of nanoparticles from produced fluid was evaluated experimentally, and it was estimated that 3% of the injected nanoparticles were recovered in a prototype magnetic collection device. An analysis technique was tailored to nanosensors with a dye-release mechanism to estimate temperature measurement geolocation by analyzing the return curve of the released dye. This technique was used in a hypothetical example problem, and good estimates of geolocation were achieved. Tin-bismuth alloy nanoparticles were synthesized using a sonochemical method, and a bench heating experiment was performed using these nanoparticles. Particle growth due to melting was observed, indicating that tin-bismuth nanoparticles have potential as temperature nanosensors

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Flexible Geothermal Power Generation utilizing Geologic Thermal Energy Storage (Final Seedling Project Report)

This report concludes that there is a cost-effective strategy for seasonal storage of heat that will provide firm, but dispatchable, electrical generating capacity in times when other renewable energy is not available to meet demand. Deployment of the technology appears to require no new technology, but instead combines solar, geothermal, and conventional oil and gas drilling technologies in a novel way. The study basis is the use of sedimentary geologic formations as a medium for thermal energy storage (TES), specifically for heat collected in concentrating solar collectors. The study identifies methodologies that could be used to transport this heat into and out of the subsurface in order to produce dispatchable electrical power, and reports on initial optimization results. The GeoTES system (heat input, storage, heat recovery, and heat to electric conversion) described in this analysis has the potential to provide a unique pathway for increasing the grid penetration of renewable energy in large blocks of power and across many states and regions. Further, the system can be used both to meet the nation’s flexible energy needs while also improving grid stability and reliability. The present study evaluated the use of a large number of dedicated wells to store and recover the heat, essentially creating a synthetic geothermal reservoir. The use of sedimentary geology allows the wells to be drilled at low cost. Dedicated hot and cold wells are used, arranged in a five-spot well pattern with each hot or cold well surrounded at an appropriate distance by the opposite type of well. In large numbers this becomes alternating rows of hot and cold wells. Each hot and cold well is operated using a push-pull strategy. This configuration provides the ability to immediately recover stored hot fluid from a GeoTES reservoir, or to store the heat over many months for recovery at low loss when needed. This is a practical approach for managing the system’s fluid inventory and reducing parasitic load. The production and injection power requirements are reduced because the rows of wells operating in “push” mode provide help to the wells operating in “pull” mode, and vice-versa. Initial charging of a GeoTES system increases the heat recovery temperature. Increasing the duration of the charging period decreases the magnitude of the temperature fluctuations that occur following prolonged system operation. Because of direct contact of the heated water with the reservoir formation, the production of both hot water and steam from the TES, and the temperature ranges of the recovered fluid (190 – 230°C or 375 – 445°F), conventional geothermal power cycles were used to convert the stored heat to electricity. A power cycle configuration for the GeoTES system was selected following a screening study of a number of flash, and flash/binary hybrid options. This analysis concluded that, of the configurations evaluated, a dual-stage flash steam cycle provides the lowest capital costs per unit net power generation with an acceptable hot brine inlet fluid flow rate. The evaluation included the power plant cost estimate, the cost and number of wells and the associated parasitic loads. Annual power generation performance was simulated to evaluate capacity factor and LCOE. The LCOE calculated for the inherently high capacity GeoTES system was $\$$0.13/kWhe. This value was calculated for the case where the solar thermal collector was sized in such a way that the solar collectors permitted an annual power plant capacity factor of up to 97%. The power cycle was able to provide power to the grid every night of the year, and flexible base-load power during the winter, if needed. This LCOE value compares favorably with reported values for solar photovoltaic plus battery energy storage (PV+BES) systems in the open literature, i.e. $\$$0.148/kWhe for a PV+BES system with 4 hours of electrochemical battery energy storage capacity. Addition of battery energy storage with more hours of storage would further increase PV+BES system LCOE and increase the separation between GeoTES and PV+BES. A GeoTES system would therefore provide superior economics for high capacity and long duration solar energy storage.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Method for carbon dioxide sequestration

A method for geo-sequestration of a carbon dioxide includes selection of a target water-laden geological formation with low-permeability interbeds, providing an injection well into the formation and injecting supercritical carbon dioxide (SC--CO.sub.2) into the injection well under conditions of temperature, pressure and density selected to cause the fluid to enter the formation and splinter and/or form immobilized ganglia within the formation. This process allows for the immobilization of the injected SC--CO.sub.2 for very long times. The dispersal of scCO2 into small ganglia is accomplished by alternating injection of SC--CO.sub.2 and water. The injection rate is required to be high enough to ensure the SC--CO.sub.2 at the advancing front to be broken into pieces and small enough for immobilization through viscous instability.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simulation of supersonic molecular beam injection fueling into H-mode plasmas on EAST using BOUT++

Transport dynamic 2D simulations for supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) fueling into H-mode deuterium plasmas on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is first simulated using a seven-field two-fluid model in the BOUT++ framework. The SMB is assumed to be injected into plasma from the midplane at the low field side with a fixed width and constant molecular flux. The different densities and injection velocities of SMBI are investigated within the upper single-null geometry of EAST. The simulations indicate that the SMBI has a self-shielding effect on molecules' inward transport into the plasma, and the deposition of SMBI leads to a large increase in plasma density and decrease in plasma temperature. There is a velocity threshold for SMB penetrating the pedestal and depositing at the top of density pedestal. However, the deposition point would be back toward the plasma boundary after SMB arriving at the deepest penetration position. Comparing the different molecular injection velocities and densities, the outcomes demonstrate that the depth of deposition is closely related to the injection velocity rather than the molecular density. The simulated results show good agreement with the EAST experiments by comparing the electron density profiles obtained by simulation and experiment, respectively. These results will be helpful for guiding future experiments, as well as the design of the SMBI system.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

First observation and characterization of vortex flow in steel micronozzles for high-pressure diesel injection

Vortex flows can be observed in many industrial systems. One of the most intricate vortex flows is the one formed in high-pressure fuel injector nozzles, which dynamics and influence on initial jet formation have been veiled due to great difficulties in observation of micro-scale fluids enclosed with steel nozzles. In this study, an X-ray tracer imaging method was used to visualize the transient fluid motion in steel micronozzles for the high-pressure diesel injection. The 1 μm-size tungsten particles were added to the diesel so that well-contrasted X-ray images of in-nozzle flows can be recorded with high-energy polychromatic X-ray beams. The X-ray images revealed, for the first time, the transient behavior of vortex flow, vortex-type cavitation and flow separation inside the steel nozzle. The needle-lift dependence of in-nozzle vortex flow dynamics was then modeled and correlated to those observed in large-scale optical nozzles in previous studies. Here, the results showed that the in-nozzle vortex and emerging jet flow characteristics of the practical nozzle were similar with those of large-scale nozzles, which suggested that the results of previous fundamental studies can be closely linked to practical cases.

42 ENGINEERING↗