Probabilistic nucleation and crystal growth in porous medium : new insights from calcium carbonate precipitation on primary and secondary substrates

Knowledge of crystal nucleation and growth is paramount in understanding the geometry evolution of porous medium during reactive transport processes in geo-environmental studies. To predict transport properties precisely, it is necessary to delineate both the amount and location of nucleation and precipitation events in the spatiotemporal domain. This study investigates the precipitation of calcium carbonate crystals on a heterogeneous sandstone substrate as a function of chemical supersaturation, temperature, and time. The main objective was to evaluate solid formation under different boundary conditions when the solid-liquid interface plays a key role. New observations were made on the effect of primary and secondary substrates and the role of preferential precipitation locations on the rock surfaces. The results indicate that supersaturation and temperature determine the amount, distribution pattern, and growth rate of crystals. Substrate characteristics governed the nucleation, growth location, and evolution probability across time and space. Moreover, substrate surface properties introduced preferential sites that were occupied and covered with solids first. Our results highlight the complex dynamics induced by substrate surface properties on the spatial and temporal solute distribution, transport, and deposition. We accentuate the great potentials of the probabilistic nucleation model to describe mineral formation in a porous medium during reactive transport.

DDC Class

600: Technik

620: Ingenieurwissenschaften

Funding(s)

Solid and Salt Precipitation Kinetics during CO2 Injection into Reservoir (SaltPreCO2)

Funding Organisations

EEA

Norway Grants, Norwegian Financial Mechanism

Polish National Science Center (NCN)

Research Council of Norway (NFR)

More Funding Information

This publication has been produced with support from the project “Solid and Salt Precipitation Kinetics during CO2 Injection into Reservoir” (SaltPreCO2), funded by the EEA and Norway Grants, Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014−2021, (UMO-2019/34/H/ST10/00564) through the GRIEG Program, operated by the Polish National Science Center (NCN) in cooperation with the Research Council of Norway (NFR). M.N. acknowledges the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo (UiO), for granting the Kristine Bonnevie scholarship.

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publishedVersion

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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Name

acsomega.1c04147.pdf

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3.47 MB

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Adobe PDF

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Probabilistic nucleation and crystal growth in porous medium : new insights from calcium carbonate precipitation on primary and secondary substrates