PNNL

Abstract

ECKEChem (Equilibrium, Conservation, Kinetic Equation Chemistry) is a reactive transport module for the STOMP suite of multifluid subsurface flow and transport simulators that was developed from an engineering perspective. STOMP comprises a suite of operational modes that are distinguished by the solved coupled conservation equations with capabilities for a variety of subsurface applications (e.g., environmental remediation and stewardship, geologic sequestration of greenhouse gases, gas hydrate production, and oil shale production). The ECKEChem module was designed to provide integrated reactive transport capabilities across the suite of STOMP simulator operational modes. The initial application for the ECKEChem module was in the simulation of the mineralization reactions that occurred with the injection of supercritical carbon dioxide into deep Columbia River basalt formations, where it was implemented in the STOMP-CO2 simulator. The STOMP-ECKEChem solution approach to modeling reactive transport in multifluid geologic media is founded on an engineering perspective: 1) sequential non-iterative coupling between the flow and reactive transport is sufficient, 2) reactive transport can be modeled by operator splitting with local geochemistry and global transport, 3) geochemistry can be expressed as a system of coupled nonlinear equilibrium, conservation and kinetic equations, 4) a limited number of kinetic equation forms are used in geochemical practice. This chapter describes the conceptual approach to converting a geochemical reaction network into a series of equilibrium, conservation and kinetic equations, the implementation of ECKEChem in STOMP, the numerical solution approach, and a demonstration of the simulator on a complex application involving desorption of uranium from contaminated field-textured sediments.