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MRST-co2lab
Modeling geological CO2 storage is characterized by scarce data, large spans in spatial and temporal scales, and delicate balances by different physical flow mechanisms. MRST-co2lab offers a set of open-source simulators and workflow tools that have been specially designed to meet these challenges. The software combines results of more than one decade of academic research and development on CO2 storage modeling into a unified toolchain that is easy and intuitive to use. The software is flexible and efficient and can be used to study realistic injection scenarios, or function as a platform for rapid prototyping of new models and computational methods.

Strong points:

  • Computational tools designed specifically for the study of long-term, large-scale storage of CO2
  • Intuitive graphical user interfaces makes it simple to explore and experiement with public data sets
  • Applicable to the grid types and input formats used in industry-standard geological models
  • Flexible programming framework, which also includes standard reservoir simulation tools that are thorougly tested and verified/validated against commercial reservoir simulators
  • Full access to the entire source code
  • Extensive suit of examples and datasets
  • Combines results from many years of academic research in one single toolchain

MRST-co2lab contains routines that can be combined into a flexible toolchain for investigating CO2 storage scenarios. The figure shows analysis of the Johansen formation using data from the CO2 Storage Atlas for Norwegian Continental Shelf.

More about the software

MRST-co2lab is implemented as an add-on module to the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST) and consists of a family of computational tools that have been developed especially for the study of long-term storage of CO2 in large-scale aquifer systems. The software is intuitive to use and provides you with a wide variety of relevant analysis options. Using one of the graphical user-interfaces, you can interactively explore geological formations from the Norwegian Continental Shelf and visualize migration paths and compute upper theoretical bounds on structural, residual, and solubility trapping. Or, you can use one of the simulators to analyse pressure build-up and plume migration and compute detailed trapping inventories for realistic storage scenarios. Finally, the software offers methods that can be used to develop plans for maximized utilization of storage capacity by optimizing the placement of injection points and injection schedules.

MRST-co2lab is designed to serve multiple user types. On one hand, the software can be used as a graybox simulator that provides reliable modeling of real storage operations. Equally important, the software is designed to be a flexible software platform for research and development of new models and computational methods. The software provides full access to all source code and offers a large number of library functions that can easily be combined and extended to make new fit-for-purpose analysis tools. How to do this is demonstrated through a number of tutorials and worked examples that involving real data.

The development of the MRST-co2lab was funded by CLIMIT, the Norwegian research programme for accelerating the commercialisation of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

 

Published January 28, 2016