Energy Sources Part A-recovery Utilization and Environmental Effects, Vol.35, No.6, 538-545, 2013
The Pressure-decay Method for Nature Convection Accelerated Diffusion of CO2 in Oil and Water Under Elevated Pressures
The diffusion of CO2 into oil and water are studied experimentally. The solubility of CO2 in the oil-water mixture and the density of CO2-saturated liquid are measured, and the pressure-decay method is used to measure effective diffusivity of CO2 in oil and water. It is found that the solubility of CO2 in oil-water mixture can be determined by that of CO2 in oil and water, respectively. With the dissolution of CO2 into water and oil, concentration-induced density gradient causes natural convection and accelerates the diffusion process. The determined effective diffusivities are almost two orders of magnitude larger than the molecular diffusivities.