Research on Monitoring Technology and Method of Geologic CO2 Sequestration
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability in Geographic Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2027 | Viewed by 58
Editor
Interests: tight/shale oil; CO2; molecular dynamics; fracturing; numerical simulation; EOR
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid depletion of conventional hydrocarbon reserves has shifted global attention toward unconventional resources, particularly tight and shale oil formations. However, the economic and efficient development of these reservoirs remains challenging due to ultralow matrix permeability, complex pore networks and significant fluid–solid interactions at the nanoscale. This Special Issue focuses on the synergistic application of carbon dioxide (CO2) as both a fracturing fluid and an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agent in tight/shale oil reservoirs, with emphasis on multiscale experimental and computational approaches.
Recent advances in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have provided unprecedented insights into the nanoconfined behavior of hydrocarbons and CO2 within organic-rich shales, revealing mechanisms of kerogen swelling, competitive adsorption and CO2-induced oil mobilization. Meanwhile, hydraulic fracturing combined with CO2 huff-n-puff or flooding processes has demonstrated considerable potential for improving oil recovery while simultaneously enabling geological carbon storage. Nevertheless, the fundamental understanding of CO2–crude oil–rock interactions under reservoir conditions—especially the interplay between fracturing-induced fracture networks and microscopic displacement efficiency—remains incomplete.
This Special Issue invites original research articles, comprehensive reviews and case studies addressing, but not limited to, the following topics: (1) molecular dynamics simulations of CO2/shale oil systems under nano-confinement; (2) numerical simulation of coupled hydraulic fracturing, multiphase flow and CO2 transport in fractured tight/shale reservoirs; (3) laboratory-scale investigations of CO2-based fracturing fluids and EOR performance; (4) field-scale applications and pilot tests of CO2 injection in unconventional plays; (5) innovative workflows integrating MD-derived constitutive relationships into continuum-scale reservoir simulators and (6) environmental and economic assessments of CO2 utilization in tight/shale oil development. By bridging atomic-scale mechanisms with field-scale engineering practices, this collection aims to advance the fundamental science and practical technologies for sustainable and efficient exploitation of tight/shale oil resources using CO2.
Dr. Zhengbin Wu
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- tight/shale oil
- CO2-enhanced oil recovery
- molecular dynamics simulation
- hydraulic fracturing
- multiscale numerical simulation
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