Offshore CO2 storage in shallow saline aquifers presents significant potential due to its operational feasibility and large storage capacity. However, the natural or anthropogenic damage to the caprock integrity may trigger submarine CO2 leakage. High-velocity ocean currents accelerate the dissolution and dispersion of leaked CO2 in seawater, while current understanding in this field remains limited. This study establishes a seawater-CO2 dissolution-dispersion numerical model based on shallow marine environments, in order to quantify how high-velocity currents affect CO2 dispersion paths and the trend of concentration variations. Simulations reveal that at typical leakage rates (17.0-60.0 kg/day), high-velocity currents (0.20-0.405 m/s) expand the horizontal spread of dissolved CO2 at different water depths by up to 45 m within 2 minutes, approximately 9 times wider than low-velocity situations (0.05 m/s). Simultaneously, rapid dilution occurs: while the peak concentration of CO2 bubbles in high-velocity currents exhibit 1.37 times higher than low-velocity scenarios, dissolved CO2 concentration stabilizes at merely 24.80% of the latter. The results indicate that high-velocity currents complicate the monitoring efforts of CO2 leakage. These findings provide critical insights for predicting impacts of CO2 leakage and optimizing monitoring strategies in shallow marine CO2 storage projects.
| Published in | Science Discovery (Volume 13, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12 |
| Page(s) | 6-15 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
CO2 Leakage, CO2 Storage, Numerical Simulation, Extreme Ocean Current Environment, Safety Analysis
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APA Style
Weng, H., Wang, D. (2025). Numerical Simulation of the Impact of High-Velocity Ocean Currents on CO2 Leakage in Shallow Saline Aquifers. Science Discovery, 13(1), 6-15. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12
ACS Style
Weng, H.; Wang, D. Numerical Simulation of the Impact of High-Velocity Ocean Currents on CO2 Leakage in Shallow Saline Aquifers. Sci. Discov. 2025, 13(1), 6-15. doi: 10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12,
author = {Hao Weng and Dayong Wang},
title = {Numerical Simulation of the Impact of High-Velocity Ocean Currents on CO2 Leakage in Shallow Saline Aquifers
},
journal = {Science Discovery},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {6-15},
doi = {10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sd.20251301.12},
abstract = {Offshore CO2 storage in shallow saline aquifers presents significant potential due to its operational feasibility and large storage capacity. However, the natural or anthropogenic damage to the caprock integrity may trigger submarine CO2 leakage. High-velocity ocean currents accelerate the dissolution and dispersion of leaked CO2 in seawater, while current understanding in this field remains limited. This study establishes a seawater-CO2 dissolution-dispersion numerical model based on shallow marine environments, in order to quantify how high-velocity currents affect CO2 dispersion paths and the trend of concentration variations. Simulations reveal that at typical leakage rates (17.0-60.0 kg/day), high-velocity currents (0.20-0.405 m/s) expand the horizontal spread of dissolved CO2 at different water depths by up to 45 m within 2 minutes, approximately 9 times wider than low-velocity situations (0.05 m/s). Simultaneously, rapid dilution occurs: while the peak concentration of CO2 bubbles in high-velocity currents exhibit 1.37 times higher than low-velocity scenarios, dissolved CO2 concentration stabilizes at merely 24.80% of the latter. The results indicate that high-velocity currents complicate the monitoring efforts of CO2 leakage. These findings provide critical insights for predicting impacts of CO2 leakage and optimizing monitoring strategies in shallow marine CO2 storage projects.
},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Numerical Simulation of the Impact of High-Velocity Ocean Currents on CO2 Leakage in Shallow Saline Aquifers AU - Hao Weng AU - Dayong Wang Y1 - 2025/03/21 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12 DO - 10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12 T2 - Science Discovery JF - Science Discovery JO - Science Discovery SP - 6 EP - 15 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2331-0650 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sd.20251301.12 AB - Offshore CO2 storage in shallow saline aquifers presents significant potential due to its operational feasibility and large storage capacity. However, the natural or anthropogenic damage to the caprock integrity may trigger submarine CO2 leakage. High-velocity ocean currents accelerate the dissolution and dispersion of leaked CO2 in seawater, while current understanding in this field remains limited. This study establishes a seawater-CO2 dissolution-dispersion numerical model based on shallow marine environments, in order to quantify how high-velocity currents affect CO2 dispersion paths and the trend of concentration variations. Simulations reveal that at typical leakage rates (17.0-60.0 kg/day), high-velocity currents (0.20-0.405 m/s) expand the horizontal spread of dissolved CO2 at different water depths by up to 45 m within 2 minutes, approximately 9 times wider than low-velocity situations (0.05 m/s). Simultaneously, rapid dilution occurs: while the peak concentration of CO2 bubbles in high-velocity currents exhibit 1.37 times higher than low-velocity scenarios, dissolved CO2 concentration stabilizes at merely 24.80% of the latter. The results indicate that high-velocity currents complicate the monitoring efforts of CO2 leakage. These findings provide critical insights for predicting impacts of CO2 leakage and optimizing monitoring strategies in shallow marine CO2 storage projects. VL - 13 IS - 1 ER -
Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
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