Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science

Volume

608

First Page

1739

Last Page

1749

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Engineering / Centre for Sustainable Energy and Resources

RAS ID

45361

Comments

Ali, M., Yekeen, N., Pal, N., Keshavarz, A., Iglauer, S., & Hoteit, H. (2022). Influence of organic molecules on wetting characteristics of mica/H2/brine systems: Implications for hydrogen structural trapping capacities. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 608(Part 2), 1739-1749.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.080

Abstract

Hypothesis:

Actualization of the hydrogen (H2) economy and decarbonization goals can be achieved with feasible large-scale H2 geo-storage. Geological formations are heterogeneous, and their wetting characteristics play a crucial role in the presence of H2, which controls the pore-scale distribution of the fluids and sealing capacities of caprocks. Organic acids are readily available in geo-storage formations in minute quantities, but they highly tend to increase the hydrophobicity of storage formations. However, there is a paucity of data on the effects of organic acid concentrations and types on the H2-wettability of caprock-representative minerals and their attendant structural trapping capacities.

Experiment:

Geological formations contain organic acids in minute concentrations, with the alkyl chain length ranging from C4 to C26. To fully understand the wetting characteristics of H2 in a natural geological picture, we aged mica mineral surfaces as a representative of the caprock in varying concentrations of organic molecules (with varying numbers of carbon atoms, lignoceric acid C24, lauric acid C12, and hexanoic acid C6) for 7 days. To comprehend the wettability of the mica/H2/brine system, we employed a contact-angle procedure similar to that in natural geo-storage environments (25, 15, and 0.1 MPa and 323 K).

Findings:

At the highest investigated pressure (25 MPa) and the highest concentration of lignoceric acid (10−2 mol/L), the mica surface became completely H2 wet with advancing (θa= 106.2°) and receding (θr=97.3°) contact angles. The order of increasing θa and θr with increasing organic acid contaminations is as follows: lignoceric acid > lauric acid > hexanoic acid. The results suggest that H2 gas leakage through the caprock is possible in the presence of organic acids at higher physio-thermal conditions. The influence of organic contamination inherent at realistic geo-storage conditions should be considered to avoid the overprediction of structural trapping capacities and H2 containment security.

DOI

10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.080

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Included in

Engineering Commons

Share

 
COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.