Laboratory studies on CO2-brine-rock interaction: an analysis of research trends and current knowledge

Greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere is considered one of the major causes of the ongoing climate change and the global warming of the last decades. One of the possible tools to reduce this emission is carbon capture and storage (CCS). This work aims to describe the research trends and main findings related to laboratory-scale experiments within the field of CCS and how that research has developed over time with perspectives for large-scale deployment.

The study was based on a bibliometric approach using the WoS and Scopus databases. 12,276 contributions were identified in relation to the general field of CO₂ geological storage, 4,369 of which addressed laboratory-scale experimentation. Between 2001 and 2012, scientific production incremented considerably both on CO₂ geological storage and on related experimental laboratory work. According to keyword analysis, the currently leading research tendencies are about pore structure (0.48%), residual trapping (0.62%) and hydrogen (0.27%). Sedimentary rocks are the most studied rock type in laboratory studies (22.07%), while basaltic rocks are the least frequent (1.09%) in these experiments, which reflects the dominant use of sedimentary reservoirs in pilot and commercial projects. Laboratory scale experimentation and numerical modelling were found to be of utmost importance to understand processes that take place during CO₂ geological storage.