Fringe with benefits? Does particle segregation help or hinder carbon storage and sequestration projects in distal deep-marine sedimentary successions
- Academic lead
- Prof David Hodgson, School of Earth and Environment, d.hodgson@leeds.ac.uk
- Industrial lead
- Dr Ian Kane and Dr Lin Ma, co-PIs of LobeStore JIP, Department of Earth and Environment, University of Manchester
- Co-supervisor(s)
- Prof Mike Fairweather, school of Chemical and Process Engineering, M.Fairweather@leeds.ac.uk, Prof Jeff Peakall, School of Earth and Environment, j.peakall@leeds.ac.uk, Dr Gareth Keevil, School of Earth and Environment, G.M.Keevil@leeds.ac.uk
- Project themes
- Clean Energy, Computational & Analytical Tools, Environmental Flows, Experimental Techniques
Submarine fan systems are volumetrically the largest sedimentary bodies on Earth. Traditionally, application of research into submarine fan evolution has focused on the distribution of rock properties directly relevant to hydrocarbon extraction. The large footprint of submarine fans means they are potential carbon storage sites, particularly their fringes, which are dominated by the deposits of turbulent particulate density flows. These settings are highly heterogenous in their sedimentology and mineralogy due to complicated, and poorly understood, particulate density flow dynamics and grain segregation processes during sediment transport. CO2 injection, migration and storage are dependent on reactions between CO2, brines, and reservoir rock. Therefore, the segregation of sediment grain size, shape, and mineralogy, and the role of pore- to reservoir-scale heterogeneities, remains a major uncertainty during CO2 injection.
To reduce this uncertainty, the student will design and undertake physical experiments of dilute sediment gravity flows with mixed particle characteristics, validated with numerical simulations of grain transport in turbulent flows. These will advance understanding in the hydrodynamic segregation of minerals in the fringes of submarine fans to help prediction of reaction dynamics between CO2, brines, and reservoir rocks.
Physical experiments will build on recent investigations into saline flow-topography interactions in the Sorby Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.