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Updated: Oct 25, 2026

Measuring Carbon-based Contaminant Mineralization Using Combined CO2 Flux and Radiocarbon Analyses
Published on: October 21, 2016
A Multi-Parameter Correction Model for Predicting IFT and MMP of CO2-Oil Systems
Quanling Qin1,2, Kang Zhou3, Zhixin Gao1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Deep Oil and Gas, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao266580, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Gas-liquid interfacial behavior in nanoconfined CO2-hydrocarbon systems controls interfacial tension (IFT), minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), and miscibility development in nanoporous media. Most confinement-correction models focus on critical temperature and critical pressure, while changes in the acentric factor, critical volume, binary interaction coefficient, and parachor are less consistently treated. Here, we developed a multi-parameter thermodynamic correction framework that combines a cubic equation of state, flash calculations, and parachor-based IFT prediction. The model reproduced literature and experimental benchmarks with relative deviations of 1.44% for bulk CO2-C6 MMP, less than 3% for confined CO2-C6 MMP, and 3.49% for a CO2-mixed hydrocarbon system. Additional comparisons with experimental MMP/IFT data and SAFT-based calculations showed consistent pressure and pore-size trends. The full-parameter correction gave lower IFT and MMP than correction of only critical temperature and critical pressure. For CO2-C8 at 80 °C in a 5 nm pore, the IFT at 6 MPa decreased from 2.52 to 0.613 mN/m, and the MMP decreased from 12.75 to 11.48 MPa after all parameter shifts were included. The correction effect became stronger in smaller pores, at higher temperatures, and for longer-chain hydrocarbons. Mechanistic analysis showed that pressure and stronger confinement promote gas-liquid compositional homogenization, whereas temperature regulates miscibility non-monotonically. The workflow is most suitable for comparing pore-size, temperature, pressure, and composition effects in CO2-alkane and simplified mixed-hydrocarbon systems. Extension to complex crude oils requires reliable compositional and thermodynamic inputs.
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