Thermodynamic Analysis of the Temperature Effect on Calcite Surface Reactions in Aqueous Environments

Reactive transport models for subsurface applications, particularly those for modified salinity waterflooding (MSW) in carbonates, have to be equipped with thermodynamic models that can reliably predict/describe adsorption phenomena at variable temperature conditions. To advance the understanding of the calcite reactivity at high temperatures, combining experimental and modeling studies is required.

Therefore, we used a surface complexation model (SCM) to describe the reactivity at the calcite–water interface and obtained the enthalpies of the surface reactions by fitting the SCM either to high-temperature electrokinetic data obtained through streaming potential measurements on limestone samples or to the effluent concentration from single-phase flooding experiments.

We assumed that the equilibrium constants of the surface reactions follow a temperature dependence according to van’t Hoff equation. Our calculations suggest that calcite protonation is more exothermic compared to other minerals (e.g., silica, hematite) and that the adsorption of Ca2+, Mg2+, and SO42– are all endothermic, with SO42– having the highest reaction enthalpy. We further show that the inferred enthalpies were in agreement with enthalpy changes from published microcalorimetry experiments.

Despite the consistency with microcalorimetry data, the obtained enthalpies are not undisputable, and additional data are necessary to unequivocally constrain the temperature effect on the calcite surface reactivity.