Estimation of the fluid-fluid interfacial area using kinetic interface sensitive tracers in dynamic porous media experiments

Fluid-fluid interfacial area (IFA) in a two-phase flow in porous media is an important parameter for many geoscientific applications involving mass- and energy-transfer processes between the fluid-phases. Schaffer et al. (2013) introduced a new category of reactive tracers termed kinetically interface sensitive (KIS) tracers, able to quantify the size of the fluid-fluid IFA. In our previous experiments (Tatomir et al., 2018) we have demonstrated the application of the KIS tracers in a highly-controlled column experiment filled with a well-characterized porous medium consisting of well-sorted, spherical glass beads.

In this work we investigate several types of glass-bead materials and natural sands to quantitatively characterize the influence of the porous-medium grain-, pore-size and texture on the mobile interfacial area between an organic liquid and water. The fluid-fluid interfacial area is determined by interpretation of the breakthrough curves (BTCs) of the reaction product of the KIS tracer. When the tracer which is dissolved in the non-wetting phase meets the water, an irreversible hydrolysis process begins leading to the formation of two water-soluble products. For the experiments we use a peristaltic pump and a high precision injection pump to control the injection rate of the organic liquid and tracer.

A Darcy-scale numerical model is used to simulate the immiscible displacement process coupled with the reactive tracer transport across the fluid-fluid interface. The results show that the current reactive transport model is not always capable to reproduce the breakthrough curves of tracer experiments and that a new theoretical framework may be required.

Investigations of the role of solid surface area of the grains show that the grain surface roughness has an important influence on the IFA. . Furthermore, a linear relationship between the mobile capillary associated IFA and the inverse mean grain diameter can be established. The results are compared with the data collected from literature measured with high resolution microtomography and partitioning tracer methods. The capillary associated IFA values are consistently smaller because KIS tracers measure the mobile part of the interface. Through this study the applicability range of the KIS tracers is considerably expanded and the confidence in the robustness of the method is improved.

 

 

Schaffer M, Maier F, Licha T, Sauter M (2013) A new generation of tracers for the characterization of interfacial areas during supercritical carbon dioxide injections into deep saline aquifers: Kinetic interface-sensitive tracers (KIS tracer). International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 14:200–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.020

Tatomir A, Vriendt KD, Zhou D, et al (2018) Kinetic Interface Sensitive Tracers: Experimental Validation in a Two-Phase Flow Column Experiment. A Proof of Concept. Water Resources Research 54:10,223-10,241. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022621