A salt-induced tackifying polymer for enhancing oil recovery in highsalinity reservoirs:Synthesis,evaluation,and mechanism

Polymerflooding is an effective method widely applied for enhancing oil recovery(EOR)by reducing the mobility ratio between theinjected water and crude oil.However,traditional polymers encounter challenges in high salinity reservoirs due to their salt sensitivity.Toovercome this challenge,we synthesized a zwitterion polymer(PAMNS)with salt-induced tackifying property through copolymerization ofacrylamide and a zwitterion monomer,methylacrylamide propyl-N,N-dimethylbutylsulfonate(NS).NS monomer is obtained from thereaction between 1,4-butanesultone and dimethylamino propyl methylacrylamide.In this study,the rheological properties,salt responsiveness,and EOR efficiency of PAMNS were evaluated.Results demonstrate that PAMNS exhibits desirable salt-induced tackifyingcharacteristics,with viscosity increasing up to 2.4 times as the NaCl concentration reaches a salinity of 30×10^(4)mg L^(-1).Furthermore,highvalence ions possess a much stronger effect on enhancing viscosity,manifested as Mg^(2+)>Ca^(2+)>Na^(+).Molecular dynamics simulations(MD)andfluid dynamics experiment results demonstrate that PAMNS molecules exhibit a more stretched state and enhanced intermolecularassociations in high-salinity environments.It is because of the salt-induced tackifying,PAMNS demonstrates superior performance inpolymerflooding experiments under salinity ranges from 5×10^(4)mg L^(-1)to 20×10^(4)mg L^(-1),leading to 10.38–19.83%higher EOR thantraditional polymers.

Application of Polymers in Low Permeability Formations

For low-permeability sandstone reservoir with big channel, we researched the novel deep profile method alternative injection of anionic and cationic polymer. Evaluating various factors on adsorption capacity through lab test, the results show that with the increase of temperature, the adsorption capacity decreases and the cationic polymer is easier to be absorbed. With the increase of salinity, adsorption time or polymer concentration, the adsorption capacity increases. The adsorption equilibrium concentration of cationic polymer is 1500 mg/L;adsorption equilibrium time is 8 h. The adsorption equilibrium concentration of anionic polymer is 1000 mg/L;adsorption equilibrium time is 6 h. Physical simulation experiment shows that alternative injection of anionic and cationic polymer is better than injection of single polymer, and preferential injection of cationic polymer is better than preferential injection of anionic polymer. With the increase of injection rounds, sealing capacity gets better, but in view of cost, the rounds should not be more than 3. The profile control technique can obviously enhanced oil recovery, and water displacement recovery increases 41%. 2 wells were tested successfully in Henan Oilfield in June 2010. Approximate 154.47 tons of incremental oil was obtained with 2% water-cut decrease.

Facile and controllable synthesis of amino-modified carbon dots for efficient oil displacement

Zero-dimensional(0D)carbon dots exhibit excellent potential as a new oil-displacing agent for unconventional reservoir development.However,the difficulty in size/surface properties control and unclear mechanism hinder their further applications.In this study,amino-modified carbon dots(am-CDs)for oil displacement were facilely synthesized through the rapid polymerization of D-glucose(D-Glc)and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane(APTES).The size of am-CDs could be precisely controlled by the reaction condition and quenching achieved by adjusting the pH value to neutral.The surface amine groups endow am-CDs with excellent hydrophilicity and dispersion stability.The 0.30 wt.%nanofluid based on am-CDs with an average size of 2.6±0.040 nm showed remarkable oil recovery efficiency(54.09%)without the addition of surfactant.The oil recovery efficiency of am-CDs is much higher than those of water flooding(30.25%),nano-SiO_(2) flooding(36.45%),and amino-free carbon dots(af-CDs)flooding(37.80%).Experimental and theoretical results reveal that am-CDs can be favorably adsorbed on the core surface to modulate the micro-scale wettability,changing the surface from oil-wet to relatively uniform water-wet.Meanwhile,am-CDs can effectively reduce the adhesion force between alkanes and sandstone surfaces,contributing to oil droplets peeling off and oil displacement.This study provides a new strategy for developing efficient carbon dots-based nanofluids for enhanced oil recovery.

Flow characteristic of polymer solutions in porous media:Influence of the molecular weight and concentration

The polymer solution flow in porous media is a central research topic related to hydraulic fracturing measures,formation damage and fracture propagation.Influenced by molecular weights and concentrations,various flow patterns of polymer in pores are presented,resulting in different filtration loss.In this work,the effectiveness of various polymer solutions for filtration loss was assessed by utilizing the core flooding experiment firstly.The result shows that lesser filtration loss normally is inextricably linked to solutions with high molecular weight and concentration.Subsequently,the flow behaviors of polymer solutions investigated by designed micro pore-throat structure and micro-particle image velocimetry(m-PIV)further confirmed the above result.It was found that the central convergent flow pattern benefiting from higher viscous force loss and less filtration loss was observed at high flow rates(0.5 mL/h),and higher molecular weight and concentration were more prone to convergent flow patterns.The viscosity force loss increases by about 4 times varying the molecular weight of polymer from 5×10^(6)to 18×10^(6)g/mol or the concentration from 0.05 to 0.3%.It interprets higher molecular weight and concentration in core studies and field observations with decreased filtration loss of HPAM.This work provides a theoretical foundation for the application of fracturing fluids as well as fresh perspectives on how to access the filtration loss of fracturing fluids.