A reactive transport model is proposed to simulate the reactivity of cement based material in contact with CO2-saturated brine and supercritical CO2 (scCO2) under CO2 geological storage conditions. This code is developed to solve simultaneously transport and chemistry by a global coupled approach, considering the effect of temperature and pressure. The variability of scCO2 properties with pressure and temperature, such as solubility in water, density and viscosity are taken into account. It is assumed that all chemical processes are in thermodynamical equilibrium. Dissolution and precipitation reactions for portlandite (CH) and calcite (CC) are described by mass action laws and threshold of ion activity products in order to account for complete dissolved minerals. A chemical kinetics for the dissolution and precipitation of CH and CC is introduced to facilitate numerical convergence. One properly chosen variable is able to capture the precipitation and dissolution of the relevant phase. A generalization of the mass action law is developed and applied to calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H) to take into account the continuous variation (decrease) of the Ca/Si ratio during the dissolution reaction of C-S-H. The changes in porosity and microstructure induced by the precipitation and dissolution reactions are also taken into account. Couplings between transport equations and chemical reactions are treated thanks to five mass balance equations written for each atom (Ca, Si, C, K, Cl) as well as one equation for charge balance and one for the total mass. Ion transport is described by using the Nernst-Plank equation as well as advection, while gas and liquid mass flows are governed by advection. Effect of the microstructure and saturation change during carbonation to transport properties is also considered. The model is implemented within a finite-volume code, Bil. Principles of this method and modeling approach are discussed and illustrated with the help of a simple example. This model, with all the efforts above, is able to simulate the carbonation processes for cement based materials, at both saturated and unsaturated conditions, in a wide CO2 concentration, temperature and pressure range. Several sets of experiments, including sandstone-like conditions, limestone-like conditions, supercritical CO2 boundary and unsaturated conditions reported in the literature are simulated. Good predictions are provided by the code when compared with experimental observations. Some experimental observed phenomena are also explained by the model in terms of calcite precipitation front, CH dissolution front, porosity profile, etc
Reactive transport modeling of CO2 through cementitious materials under CO2 geological storage conditions