Numerical Simulation of the Impact of High-Velocity Ocean Currents on CO2 Leakage in Shallow Saline Aquifers
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Offshore CO2 storage in shallow saline aquifers presents significant potential due to its operational feasibility and large storage capacity. However, the natural or anthropogenic damage to the caprock integrity may trigger submarine CO2 leakage. High-velocity ocean currents accelerate the dissolution and dispersion of leaked CO2 in seawater, while current understanding in this field remains limited. This study establishes a seawater-CO2 dissolution-dispersion numerical model based on shallow marine environments, in order to quantify how high-velocity currents affect CO2 dispersion paths and the trend of concentration variations. Simulations reveal that at typical leakage rates (17.0-60.0 kg/day), high-velocity currents (0.20-0.405 m/s) expand the horizontal spread of dissolved CO2 at different water depths by up to 45 m within 2 minutes, approximately 9 times wider than low-velocity situations (0.05 m/s). Simultaneously, rapid dilution occurs: while the peak concentration of CO2 bubbles in high-velocity currents exhibit 1.37 times higher than low-velocity scenarios, dissolved CO2 concentration stabilizes at merely 24.80% of the latter. The results indicate that high-velocity currents complicate the monitoring efforts of CO2 leakage. These findings provide critical insights for predicting impacts of CO2 leakage and optimizing monitoring strategies in shallow marine CO2 storage projects.
Source: Science Discovery
Authors: Hao Weng, Dayong Wang
Institution: Dalian University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Environmental Engineering
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408840688