Dissolved CO₂ Increases Breakthrough Porosity in Natural Porous Materials

When reactive fluids flow through a dissolving porous medium, conductive channels form, leading to fluid breakthrough. This phenomenon is caused by the reactive infiltration instability and is important in geologic carbon storage where the dissolution of CO₂ in flowing water increases fluid acidity. Using numerical simulations with high resolution digital models of North Sea chalk, we show that the breakthrough porosity is an important indicator of dissolution pattern. Dissolution patterns reflect the balance between the demand and supply of cumulative surface. The demand is determined by the reactive fluid composition while the supply relies on the flow field and the rock’s microstructure. We tested three model scenarios and found that aqueous CO₂ dissolves porous media homogeneously, leading to large breakthrough porosity. In contrast, solutions without CO₂ develop elongated convective channels known as wormholes, with low breakthrough porosity. These different patterns are explained by the different apparent solubility of calcite in free drift systems. Our results indicate that CO₂ increases the reactive subvolume of porous media and reduces the amount of solid residual before reactive fluid can be fully channelized. Consequently, dissolved CO₂ may enhance contaminant mobilization near injection wellbores, undermine the mechanical sustainability of formation rocks and increase the likelihood of buoyance driven leakage through carbonate rich caprocks.