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Abstract

Summary

Caprock integrity is key for the success of geologic carbon storage to prevent CO2 leakage. The CO2 Long-Term Periodic Injection Experiment (CO2LPIE) that is under preparation at the Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory (URL) provides an opportunity to study scale up of CO2 storage to the gigatonne scale. CO2LPIE will advance our understanding of the long-term sealing capacity of caprock – Opalinus Clay – exposed to CO2. We have characterized Opalinus Clay in the laboratory, revealing an anisotropic hydro-mechanical behavior and large CO2 entry pressure values. We have used the measured rock properties as input in numerical simulations to reproduce the long-term response of Opalinus Clay to the cyclic injection. Simulation results show that the low permeability of the rock, which significantly limits pore pressure diffusion and rapidly vanishes the periodic signal, may pose challenges to precisely measure the rock response at the monitoring boreholes.

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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.202522107
2025-09-01
2026-02-07
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