Experimental study on asphaltene precipitation induced by CO_2 flooding

The effects of CO2 pressure,temperature and concentration on asphaltene precipitation induced by CO2 were studied using a high-pressure vessel,interfacial tensiometer,Fourier transform infrared （FTIR） and drill core displacement experimental apparatus.The results indicated that the content of asphaltene in crude oil decreased,and the interfacial tension between a model oil and distilled water increased,with an increase of CO2 pressure,decrease of temperature and increase of molar ratio of CO2 to crude oil when CO2 contacted crude oil in the high pressure vessel.The content of asphaltene in sweepout oil and the permeability of test cores both also decreased with an increase of CO2 flooding pressure.The main reason for changes in content of asphaltene in crude oil,in interfacial tension between model oil and distilled water and in the permeability of the test core is the precipitation of asphaltene which is an interfacially active substance in crude oil.Precipitation of asphaltene also blocks pores in the drill core which decreases the permeability.

一种驱油用表面活性剂GY-9的制备及性能评价

通过阴离子表面活性剂(ME-3)、非离子表面活性剂(SM-2)、两性表面活性剂(AO-3)制备驱油用耐高温表面活性剂GY-9。在不同矿化度、温度下,对GY-9体系进行了油水界面张力、乳化性能、吸附性能等测试,并用长庆城95岩心进行模拟驱替实验。结果表明:体系具有较宽的温度和矿化度适用范围。在质量浓度为4.0 g/L,50 000 mg/L矿化水,模拟原油比为6∶4时,油水界面张力达到2.754×10-3m N/m数量级;当质量浓度为5.0 g/L时,界面张力可达6.7×10-4m N/m数量级,远高于行业标准。GY-9溶液的稳定性、耐温性均良好;驱替实验表明,可有效提高采收率约11.3%,在三次采油中具有极大的应用价值。

Destructing surfactant network in nanoemulsions by positively charged magnetic nanorods to enhance oil-water separation

The separation of ultrafine oil droplets from wasted nanoemulsions stabilized with high concentration of surfactants is precondition for oil reuse and the safe discharge of effluent.However, the double barriers of the interfacial film and network structures formed by surfactants in nanoemulsions significantly impede the oil-water separation. To destroy these surfactant protective layers, we proposed a newly-developed polyethyleneimine micelle template approach to achieve simultaneous surface charge manipulation and morphology transformation of magnetic nanospheres to magnetic nanorods. The results revealed that positively charged magnetic nanospheres exhibited limited separation performance of nanoemulsions, with a maximum chemical oxygen demand(COD) removal of 50%, whereas magnetic nanorods achieved more than 95% COD removal in less than 30 s. The magnetic nanorods were also applicable to wasted nanoemulsions from different sources and exhibited excellent resistance to wide pH changes. Owing to their unique one-dimensional structure, the interfacial dispersion of magnetic nanorods was significantly promoted, leading to the efficient capture of surfactants and widespread destruction of both the interfacial film and network structure, which facilitated droplet merging into the oil phase. The easy-toprepare and easy-to-tune strategy in this study paves a feasible avenue to simultaneously tailor surface charge and morphology of magnetic nanoparticles, and reveals the huge potential of morphology manipulation for producing high-performance nanomaterials to be applied in complex interfacial interaction process. We believe that the newly-developed magnetic-nanorods significantly contribute to hazardous oily waste remediation and advances technology evolution toward problematic oil-pollution control.

The Impact of Core Firing on EOR of Low Salinity-Surfactant Flooding

The combination of injection of lower saline brine and surfactant will increase recovery in sandstone rocks than either when any of the techniques is singly applied. In this work, core IFT test, pH test, flooding experiments and measurement of dispersion were performed on four core samples which were grouped into two: group A which were not fired and group B which were fired at a temperature of 500°C for 24 hours. Two low saline brines were prepared: LS1 which was derived by the dilution of seawater four times and LS2 which was derived by ten times diluting the seawater. The surfactant used was ethoxylated alcohol surfactant. Coreflood experiments were then performed on the rock samples starting with the injection of low saline followed by low saline brine combined with surfactant (LSS). Results from the experiments show that with the injection of LS1 brine and LSS1 higher increment in recoveries were obtained for group B than for group A cores. The same trend was also noticed with the injection of LS2 and LSS2. From the results, LS1 gave higher increment in oil recovery than LS2. Also LSS1 gave higher recoveries when compared with LSS2. In all the cases tested, core samples which were fired gave higher recoveries even though they had low permeabilities of 993 md for sample 3 and 1017 md for sample 4 than those which were not fired with higher permeabilities of 1050 md and 1055 md for samples 1 and 2 respectively. This was attributed to the alteration of wettability as well as that of permeability caused by sample firing. The dispersion profiles of the rock samples show that all samples are homogeneous.