Impact of mineralogical heterogeneity on reactive transport modelling

Impact of mineralogical heterogeneity of rocks in reactive modelling is investigated by applying a pore scale model based on the Lattice Boltzmann and Finite Volume Methods. Mass transport, chemical reaction and solid structure modification are included in the model. A two-dimensional mineral map of a sandstone rock is acquired using the imaging technique of QEMSCAN SEM with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The mineralogical heterogeneity is explored by conducting multi-mineral reaction simulations on images containing various minerals. The results are then compared with the prediction of single mineral dissolution modelling. Dissolution patterns and permeability variations of multi-mineral and single mineral reactions are presented. The errors of single mineral reaction modelling are also estimated. Numerical results show that mineralogical heterogeneity can cause significant errors in permeability prediction, if a uniform mineral distribution is assumed. The errors are smaller in high Peclet regimes than in low Peclet regimes in this sample.