Microfluidic investigation of pore-size dependency of barite nucleation.

ABSTRACT: The understanding and prediction of mineral precipitation processes in porous media are relevant for various energy-related subsurface applications. While it is well known that thermodynamic effects can inhibit crystallization in pores with sizes <0.1 µm, the retarded observation of mineral precipitation as function of pore size is less explored. Using barite as an example and based on a series of microfluidic experiments with well-defined pore sizes and shapes, we show that retardation of observation of barite crystallite can already start in pores of 1 µm size, with the probability of nucleation scaling with the pore volume. In general, it can be expected that mineralization occurs preferentially in larger pores in rock matrices, but other parameters such as the exchange of the fluids wi

SUBMITTER: Poonoosamy J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10654916 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature