Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation of Permeability Changes during EOR Polymer Flooding Using Micromodels

Polymer solutions are used in chemical EOR processes to achieve incremental oil recoveries through obtaining favorable mobility ratios. In the process, the?in-situ?viscosity is a key parameter for the polymer flood design, as well as the changes in permeability due to the retention or adsorption (e.g.: plugging). Understanding the major causes of the plugging effects allows?predicting injectivity problems as well as optimizing project design. The objective of this work is to use glass-silicon-glass micromodels in combination with tracer particles—attached to the flooded fluids—to qualitatively and quantitatively describe the extent of permeability changes?after polymer injection. Laboratory work is performed in order to determine the physical properties of the polymer solutions when they flow through porous media, such as the presence of permeability reduction/plugging of the micromodel. A statistical analysis of the distribution and extent of plugged areas?is performed and a study of the pressure response during various injection stages will complement the study. A biopolymer (Scleroglucan) was tested and compared to a commonly used polymer, giving a direct insight into their pros and cons. Five different concentrations of polymers were tested and put into relation with their quantitative and qualitative amount of sort of called retention. The amount of adsorption was determined?experimentally in one case in order to draw the significance. By exploiting the potential of GSG-micromodels in combination with tracer particles, it was possible to visualize the reduction of flow paths and its increase during various injections for the first time. Expanding the working principle proposed in this work could provide further understanding of the behavior of any polymers.?The results obtained and workflow presented in this work allow for additional understanding of polymer solutions behavior in flooding applications. Furthermore, the definition of optimized workflows to?assess any kind of solutions in porous media and permeability changes is?supported.

The transport and retention of CQDs-doped TiO_(2) in packed columns and 3D printed micromodels

CQDs-doped TiO_(2)(C-TiO_(2))has drawn increased attention in recent because of its excellent catalytic performance.Understanding the transport of C-TiO_(2)in porous media is necessary for evaluating the environmental process of this new nanomaterial.Column experiments were used in this study to investigate ionic strength(IS),dissolved organic matter(DOM)and sand grain size on the transport of C-TiO_(2).The mobility of C-TiO_(2)was inhibited by the increased IS and decreased sand grain size,but was promoted by the increased DOM concentration.The promotion efficiency of DOM ranked as humic acid(HA)>alginate(Alg)>bovine serum albumin(BSA),which was in the same order as their ability to change surface charges.The micromodels of pore network were prepared via 3D printing to further reveal the deposition mechanisms and spatial/temporal distribution of C-TiO_(2)in porous space.C-TiO_(2)mainly attached to the upstream region of collectors because of interception.The collector ripening was observed after long-time deposition.The existence of DOM caused visible decrease of C-TiO_(2)deposition in the pore network.HA caused the most remarkable reduce of deposition in the three types of DOM,which was consistent with the column experiment results.This research is helpful to predict the transport of C-TiO_(2)in natural porous media.

■ FLOW WITH PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROCESSES—MICROSCOPIC STUDY

This paper describes the results of microscopic study on fluid flows through porous media.The oil-water two-phase flow,the oil-air-water tri-phase flow.the Foam-surfactant-oil-water-air multi-phase flow,the microemulsion-oil-water multi-phase flow and flow with neutralization reaction are introduced.The micromodels,the technology of fabricating micromodels and the method of their application are also described.

The effect of nanoparticles on wettability alteration for enhanced oil recovery: micromodel experimental studies and CFD simulation

The applications of nanotechnology in oilfields have attracted the attention of researchers to nanofluid injection as a novel approach for enhanced oil recovery. To better understand the prevailing mechanisms in such new displacement scenarios,micromodel experiments provide powerful tools to visually observe the way that nanoparticles may mobilize the trapped oil.In this work, the e ect of silicon oxide nanoparticles on the alteration of wettability of glass micromodels was investigated in both experimental and numerical simulation approaches. The displacement experiments were performed on the original water-wet and imposed oil-wet(after aging in stearic acid/n-heptane solution) glass micromodels. The results of injection of nanofluids into the oil-saturated micromodels were then compared with those of the water injection scenarios. The flooding scenarios in the micromodels were also simulated numerically with the computational fluid dynamics(CFD) method. A good agreement between the experimental and simulation results was observed. An increase of 9% and 13% in the oil recovery was obtained by nanofluid flooding in experimental tests and CFD calculations, respectively.

Temperature effect on performance of nanoparticle/surfactant flooding in enhanced heavy oil recovery

Recently,nanoparticles have been used along with surfactants for enhancing oil recovery.Although the recent studies show that oil recovery is enhanced using nanoparticle/surfactant solutions,some effective parameters and mechanisms involved in the oil recovery have not yet been investigated.Therefore,the temperature effect on the stability of nanoparticle/surfactant solutions and ultimate oil recovery has been studied in this work,and the optimal concentrations of both SiO2 nanoparticle and surfactant(sodium dodecyl sulfate)have been determined by the Central Composite Design method.In addition,the simultaneous effects of parameters and their interactions have been investigated.Study of the stability of the injected solutions indicates that the nanoparticle concentration is the most important factor affecting the solution stability.The surfactant makes the solution more stable if used in appropriate concentrations below the CMC.According to the micromodel flooding results,the most effective factor for enhancing oil recovery is temperature compared to the nanoparticle and surfactant concentrations.Therefore,in floodings with higher porous medium temperature,the oil viscosity reduction is considerable,and more oil is recovered.In addition,the surfactant concentration plays a more effective role in reservoirs with higher temperatures.In other words,at a surfactant concentration of 250 ppm,the ultimate oil recovery is improved about 20%with a temperature increase of 20°C.However,when the surfactant concentration is equal to 750 ppm,the temperature increase enhances the ultimate oil recovery by only about 7%.Finally,the nanoparticle and surfactant optimum concentrations determined by Design-Expert software were equal to 46 and 159 ppm,respectively.It is worthy to note that obtained results are validated by the confirmation test.

How much would silica nanoparticles enhance the performance of low-salinity water flooding?

Nanofluids and low-salinity water(LSW)flooding are two novel techniques for enhanced oil recovery.Despite some efforts on investigating benefits of each method,the pros and cons of their combined application need to be evaluated.This work sheds light on performance of LSW augmented with nanoparticles through examining wettability alteration and the amount of incremental oil recovery during the displacement process.To this end,nanofluids were prepared by dispersing silica nanoparticles(0.1 wt%,0.25 wt%,0.5 wt% and 0.75 wt%)in 2,10,20 and 100 times diluted samples of Persian Gulf seawater.Contact angle measurements revealed a crucial role of temperature,where no wettability alteration occurred up to 80 ℃.Also,an optimum wettability state(with contact angle 22°)was detected with a 20 times diluted sample of seawater augmented with 0.25 wt% silica nanoparticles.Also,extreme dilution(herein 100 times)will be of no significance.Throughout micromodel flooding,it was found that in an oil-wet condition,a combination of silica nanoparticles dispersed in 20 times diluted brine had the highest displacement efficiency compared to silica nanofluids prepared with deionized water.Finally,by comparing oil recoveries in both water-and oil-wet micromodels,it was concluded that nanoparticles could enhance applicability of LSW via strengthening wettability alteration toward a favorable state and improving the sweep efficiency.

Mechanism of gas-water flow at pore-level in aquifer gas storage

By means of the pore-level simulation, the characteristics of gas-water flow and gas-water distribution during the alternative displacement of gas and water were observed directly from etched-glass micromodel. The results show that gas-water distribution styles are divided into continuous phase type and separate phase type. The water lock exists in pore and throat during the process of gas-water displacement, and it reduces the gas flow-rate and has some effects on the recovery efficiency during the operation of gas storage. According to the experimental results of aquifer gas storage in X area, the differences in available extent among reservoirs are significant, and the availability of pore space is 33% 45%.

Experimental study of the mechanism of nanofluid in enhancing the oil recovery in low permeability reservoirs using microfluidics

Due to the low porosity and low permeability in unconventional reservoirs,a large amount of crude oil is trapped in micro-to nano-sized pores and throats,which leads to low oil recovery.Nanofluids have great potential to enhance oil recovery(EOR)in low permeability reservoirs.In this work,the regulating ability of a nanofluid at the oil/water/solid three-phase interface was explored.The results indicated that the nanofluid reduced the oil/water interfacial tension by two orders of magnitude,and the expansion modulus of oil/water interface was increased by 77% at equilibrium.In addition,the solid surface roughness was reduced by 50%,and the three-phase contact angle dropped from 135(oil-wet)to 48(water-wet).Combining the displacement experiments using a 2.5D reservoir micromodel and a microchannel model,the remaining oil mobilization and migration processes in micro-to nano-scale pores and throats were visualized.It was found that the nanofluid dispersed the remaining oil into small oil droplets and displaced them via multiple mechanisms in porous media.Moreover,the high strength interface film formed by the nanofluid inhibited the coalescence of oil droplets and improved the flowing ability.These results help to understand the EOR mechanisms of nanofluids in low permeability reservoirs from a visual perspective.

Effect of alumina and silica nanocomposite based on polyacrylamide on light and heavy oil recovery in presence of formation water using micromodel

Increasing world request for energy has made oil extraction from reservoirs more desirable.Many novel EOR methods have been proposed and utilized for this purpose.Using nanocomposites in chemical flooding is one of these novel methods.In this study,we investigated the impact of six injection solutions on the recovery of light and heavy oil with the presence of two different brines as formation water using a homogenous glass micromodel.All of the injection solutions were based on a 40,000 ppm Na Cl synthetic seawater(SSW),one of which was additive free and the others were prepared by dispersing nanocomposite silica-based polyacrylamide(NCSP),nanocomposite alumina-based polyacrylamide(NCAP),the combination of both nanocomposites silica and alumina based on polyacrylamide(NCSAP),surfactant(CTAB)and polyacrylamide(PAM)with a concentration of 1000 ppm as additives.The Stability of nanocomposites was tested against the salinity of the brine and temperature using salinity and DSC tests which were successful.Alongside stability tests,IFT,contact angle and oil recovery measurements were made.Visual results revealed that in addition to the effect of silica and alumina nanocomposite in reducing interfacial tension and wettability alteration,control of mobility ratio caused a major improvement in sweeping efficiency and oil recovery.According to the sweeping behavior of injected fluids,it was found that the main effect of surfactant was wettability alteration,for polyacrylamide was mobility control and for nanocomposites was the reduction of interfacial tension between oil and injected fluid,which was completely analyzed and checked out.Also,NCSAP with 95.83%and 70.33%and CTAB with 84.35%and 91%have the highest light oil recoveries at 250,000 ppm and 180,000 ppm salinity,respectively which is related to the superposition effect of interactions between nanocomposites,solution and oil.Based on our results it can be concluded that the most effective mechanism in oil recovery was IFT reduction which was done by CTAB reduction also by using a polymer-based nanocomposite such as NCSAP and adding the mobility control factor,the oil recovery can be further enhanced.In the case of heavy oil recovery,it can be concluded that the mobility control played a much more effective role when the PAM performed almost similarly to the CTAB and other nanocomposites with a recovery factor of around 17%.In this study,we tried to investigate the effect of different injection solutions and their related mechanisms on oil recovery.

Pore-scale study of the effects of DTPA chelating agent flooding on oil recovery utilizing a clay-coated micromodel

The use of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid(DTPA)chelating agent has shown promising results for enhanced oil recovery(EOR)in prior research.Several mechanisms,mainly resulting from rock-fluid interaction,have been proposed for chelating agent flooding;however,little attention has been paid to fluid-fluid interaction thus far.The assessment of these mechanisms has primarily relied on macroscopic techniques such as core flooding.This paper aims to investigate the injection of DTPA brine and its dominant mechanisms at the pore scale using a clay-coated micromodel.The micromodel tests were performed under oil-wet and water-wet states.For a more precise examination of fluid/fluid interactions,the dynamic interfacial tension(IFT)and Zeta potential were measured.It was observed that the injection of DTPA brine in water-wet state changed the saturation distribution and increased oil recovery.Based on visual inspections,this change in saturation distribution could potentially be linked to the formation of micro-dispersions and viscoelastic interfacial phenomena.Micro-dispersions facilitate flow to unswept areas,and viscoelastic interface formation reshapes the interface between oil and brine,causing disconnected oil droplets to coalesce and thus increase recovery.Under the oil-wet state,the micro-dispersion formation and wettability alteration can be the dominant mechanisms,and the amount of recovered oil was higher than that observed in the water-wet state.Furthermore,Zeta potential measurements at the interface between brine and oil showed a more negative value for DTPA brine,which is effective in wettability alteration and micro-dispersions stability.The results indicate that IFT reduction was not significant enough to be considered the dominant mechanism,although it assists in DTPA brine penetration into the crude oil and subsequent micro-dispersion formation.

Displacement mechanisms of enhanced heavy oil recovery by alkaline flooding in a micromodel

Enhanced oil recovery （EOR） by alkaline flooding for conventional oils has been extensively studied. For heavy oils, investigations are very limited due to the unfavorable mobility ratio between the water and oil phases. In this study, the displacement mechanisms of alkaline flooding for heavy oil EOR are investigated by conducting flood tests in a micromodel. Two different displacement mechanisms are observed for enhancing heavy oil recovery. One is in situ water-in-oil （W/O） emulsion formation and partial wettability alteration. The W/O emulsion formed during the injection of alkaline solution plugs high permeability water channels, and pore walls are altered to become partially oil-wetted, leading to an improvement in sweep efficiency and high tertiary oil recovery. The other mechanism is the formation of an oil-in-water （O/W） emulsion. Heavy oil is dispersed into the water phase by injecting an alkaline solution containing a very dilute surfactant. The oil is then entrained in the water phase and flows out of the model with the water phase.

Polymeric microsphere injection in large pore-size porous media

High water-cut has become a worldwide challenge for oil production.It requires extensive efforts to process and dispose.This entails expanding water handling facilities and incurring high power consumption costs.Polymeric microsphere injection is a cost-effective way to deal with excessive water production from subterranean formations.This study reports a laboratory investigation on polymeric microsphere injection in a large volume to identify its in-depth fluid diversion capacity in a porous media with large pore/particle size ratio.The performance of polymeric microsphere injection was evaluated using etched glass micromodels based on the pore network of a natural carbonate rock,which were treated as water-wet or oil-wet micromodels.Waterflooding was conducted to displace oil at reservoir temperature of 95°C,followed by one pore volume of polymeric microsphere injection.Three polymeric microsphere samples with median particle size of 0.05,0.3,and 20μm were used to investigate the impact of particle size of the polymeric microspheres on incremental oil production capacity.Although the polymeric microspheres were much smaller than the pores,additional oil production was observed.The incremental oil production increased with increasing polymeric microsphere concentration and particle size.As a comparison,polymeric microsphere solutions were injected into oil-wet and water-wet micromodels after waterflooding.It was observed that the oil production in oil-wet micromodel was much higher than that in water-wet micromodel.The wettability of micromodels affected the distribution patterns of the remaining oil after waterflooding and further dominated the performance of the microsphere injection.The study supports the applicability of microsphere injection in oil-wet heterogeneous carbonates.

Addition of surfactants to Low Salinity Waterflooding in microfluidics system to increase oil recovery

This study was conducted to investigate the phenomenon of oil removal from inside pores using a self-designed microfluidic test kit.An artificial micromodel chip as a representation of porous rocks has been created with a uniform pore structure design and made of PMMA(Polymethyl Methacrylate)material.The micromodel chip has a porosity of 27.8%as well as a permeability of 2.7 Darcy.By using the microfluidic test kit,this study has investigated how low salinity water(LSW)injection with MgCl_(2)divalent ions and the addition of anionic surfactant,linear alkylbenzene sulfonate mixed with nonionic surfactants,nonylphenol ethoxylate(NP-10)affects to oil recovery.The injection of LSW and surfactant solution was carried out with different injection stages,injection rates and surfactant solutions con-centrations.Visual images during the injection process are recorded for analysis,which is the advantage of dynamic testing using this microfluidic test kit over conventional coreflooding.From this study,it is indicated that the selection of ions contained in LSW affects the success of LSW injection.Reducing the surfactant injection rate from 50 mL/min to 20 mL/min can increase the oil recovery from 1.27%to 4.29%.Oil recovery was also higher on surfactant injection which resulted in lower interfacial tension of the system based on the calculation of interfacial tension obtained from the Chun-Huh and Ghosh equations from the Winsor test.From all injection scenarios carried out in this study,the highest increase in oil recovery of 26.87%OOIP was obtained by injecting surfactant solutions directly in the secondary stage without prior LSW injection.