About this Research Topic
Global warming brings a tremendous threat to the sustainability of human society. Reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a common challenge for countries worldwide. The geological storage of CO2 is regarded as a direct and effective emission reduction method by the international community. However, due to the high cost and public concerns of geological disaster, underground water pollution and damage to ecosystems, the successful CO2 geo-storage projects are still rare.
To advance the application of CO2 geo-storage, we need to make this technology more environment-friendly and economically feasible. The CO2-enhanced shale gas recovery technique (CO2-ESGR), which injects CO2 into shale reservoirs, can provide dual benefits by enhancing shale gas recovery and securing geological sequestration of CO2. Theoretically, based on the stronger adsorption capacity of CO2 on shale surface, injected CO2 can displace adsorbed CH4 out of micropores. This phenomenon is the basis of CO2-ESGR. Although this technology is very promising, it is still in a very early stage of deployment. Many key issues need to be addressed, including the dynamic process of the competition adsorption of CO2 and CH4 on shale, the supercritical/liquid CO2 fracturing method, the multiscale and multiphysics behaviors between different materials, etc.
This Research Topic aims to highlight the state-of-art findings in thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) coupling behaviors between shale, CO2 and CH4 from grain scale to microscopic scale, and to the macroscopic scale for engineering applications. Original theoretical research articles, review articles, and case studies are welcomed to submit.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
To advance the application of CO2 geo-storage, we need to make this technology more environment-friendly and economically feasible. The CO2-enhanced shale gas recovery technique (CO2-ESGR), which injects CO2 into shale reservoirs, can provide dual benefits by enhancing shale gas recovery and securing geological sequestration of CO2. Theoretically, based on the stronger adsorption capacity of CO2 on shale surface, injected CO2 can displace adsorbed CH4 out of micropores. This phenomenon is the basis of CO2-ESGR. Although this technology is very promising, it is still in a very early stage of deployment. Many key issues need to be addressed, including the dynamic process of the competition adsorption of CO2 and CH4 on shale, the supercritical/liquid CO2 fracturing method, the multiscale and multiphysics behaviors between different materials, etc.
This Research Topic aims to highlight the state-of-art findings in thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) coupling behaviors between shale, CO2 and CH4 from grain scale to microscopic scale, and to the macroscopic scale for engineering applications. Original theoretical research articles, review articles, and case studies are welcomed to submit.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
- The impact of supercritical CO2 on shale properties,
- The interaction of CO2 and CH4 in shale,
- Finite element, finite difference, discrete element, and coupled numeric modeling approaches,
- Multiphysics and multiscale constitutive models of shale,
- Quantitative descriptions of the microscopic topological structures,
- The mechanism of supercritical/liquid CO2 fracturing method,
- The evaluation of shale gas recovery efficiency.
Keywords: Shale Formation, Hydro-Fracking, Microscopic Pore Structure, Multiphysics, Multiscale Simulation
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
