Estimation of the minimum miscibility pressure for CO_(2)ecrude-oil systems by molecular dynamics simulation

CO_(2)injection is an effective enhanced oil recovery technique for energy security with the benefits of carbon neutrality.To reach the maximum oil recovery,the miscible condition between CO_(2)and oil needs to be maintained in the reservoir,which requires the operation pressure to be higher than the minimum miscibility pressure(MMP).There are two types of MMPs:the first-contact MMP(FC-MMP)and the multi-contact MMP(MC-MMP).In this study,molecular dynamics simulations were performed for the CO_(2)eoil interface system using two simplified digital oil models:a Bakken dead oil with four lumping components and a live-crude-oil model with 50 types of oil molecules but with no asphaltenes and heavy oil fractions.The vanishing interfacial tension method was used to predict the MMP.Different CO_(2)eoil volume ratios were considered to mimic the different degrees of vaporization.To estimate the MMP accurately and rapidly,the interfacial tension in the low-pressure regime was used for the prediction.Consequently,different MMPs were obtained,where the MMP value increased with increasing CO_(2)eoil volume ratio.FC-MMP can be predicted when the CO_(2)eoil volume ratio is sufficiently high.When the CO_(2)eoil volume ratio was approximately 9e10,MMP was closest to the actual MC-MMP value.The condensing and vaporizing mechanism was also studied at the molecular scale.Because pure CO_(2)was used,only the vaporizing effect on MMP occurred.It was found that the intermediate C2eC6 components have the main effect on the MMP calculation.This study can help to establish a computational protocol to estimate FC-MMP and MC-MMP,which are widely used in reservoir engineering.