Core Flooding Apparatus

This specialized core flooding apparatus is designed for dispersion measurements of supercritical CO₂ in CH₄ used as input parameters for Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) field scale simulations. The rock core is mounted in a Temco tri-axial core holder (RCHT-1.5 designed for cores of length up to 102 mm and pressures up to 69 Mpa) and is kept at a constant temperature by a silicone oil bath. The methane is injected by a syringe pump (ISCO 260D) while the pulse injection of CO₂is controlled by a high pressure metering pump (Quizix QX-6000) and a HPLC switching valve. The core effluent is analysed by a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (Varian 640-IR) and the gases are collected by a second syringe pump at the end of the circuit, which works to maintain the average pressure constant during the experiment. The value of temperature and pressures (measured with a differential pressure transducer at the inlet and at the outlet of the core) are constantly monitored through Labview software.