Nanoparticle-reinforced foam system for enhanced oil recovery(EOR):Mechanistic review and perspective

Boosted by economic development and rising living standards,the world's carbon dioxide emissions remain high.Maintaining temperature rises below 1.5℃ by the end of the century requires rapid global carbon capture and storage implementation.The successful application of carbon capture,utilization,and storage(CCUS)technology in oilfields has become the key to getting rid of this predicament.Foam flooding,as an organic combination of gas and chemical flooding,became popular in the 1950s.Notwithstanding the irreplaceable advantages,as a thermodynamically unstable system,foam's stability has long restricted its development in enhanced oil and gas recovery.With special surface/interface effects and small-size effects,nanoparticles can be used as foam stabilizers to enhance foam stability,thereby improving foam seepage and oil displacement effects in porous media.In this paper,the decay kinetics and the stabilization mechanisms of nanoparticle-reinforced foams were systematically reviewed.The effects of nanoparticle characteristics,including particle concentration,surface wettability,particle size,and type,and reservoir environment factors,including oil,temperature,pressure,and salinity on the foam stabilization ability were analyzed in detail.The seepage and flooding mechanisms of nanoparticle-reinforced foams were summarized as:improving the plugging properties of foams,enhancing the interaction between foams and crude oil,and synergistically adjusting the wettability of reservoir rocks.Finally,the challenges in the practical application of nanoparticle-reinforced foams were highlighted,and the development direction was proposed.The development of nanoparticle-reinforced foam can open the way toward adaptive and evolutive EOR technology,taking one further step towards the high-efficiency production of the petroleum industry.

THE MECHANICAL METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING THE DISPLACEMENT FUNCTIONS IN ELASTICITY

In this Paper we have proven the general solution to the equations of linear operatorsAu=f as u=Cv+e . where v satisfies the equation Dv=g and D is adiagonal matrix. Basing on the consstructive proof of Hilbert Nullstellensat=. we haregiven the mechanical method of constucting C. D and e.and some of the mechanicalalgorithm displacement functions in elasticity are given by this method also .

Production characteristics and displacement mechanisms of infilling polymer-surfactant-preformed particle gel flooding in post-polymer flooding reservoirs:A review of practice in Ng3 block of Gudao Oilfield

The pilot test of infilling polymer-surfactant-preformed particle gel(PPG)flooding has been successfully implemented after polymer flooding in Ng3 block of Gudao Oilfield in China.However,the production characteristics and displacement mechanisms are still unclear,which restricts its further popularization and application.Aiming at this problem,this paper firstly analyzes the production performance of the pilot test and proposed four response types according to the change of water cut curves,including W-type,U-type,V-type response,and no response.Furthermore,the underlying reasons of these four types are analyzed from the aspects of seepage resistance and sweep efficiency.The overall sweep efficiency of gradual-rising W-type,gradual-decreasing W-type,and early V-type response increases from 0.81 to 0.93,0.55 to 0.89,and 0.94 to 1,respectively.And the sum of seepage resistance along the connection line between production well and injection well for U-type and delayed V-type response increases from 0.0994 to 0.2425,and 0.0677 to 0.1654,respectively.Then,the remaining oil distribution after polymer flooding is summarized into four types on the basis of production and geological characteristics,namely disconnected remaining oil,streamline unswept remaining oil,rhythm remaining oil,and interlayer-controlled remaining oil.Furthermore,the main displacement mechanisms for each type are clarified based on the dimensionless seepage resistance and water absorption profile.Generally,improving connectivity by well pattern infilling is the most important for producing disconnected remaining oil.The synergistic effect of well pattern infilling and polymer-surfactant-PPG flooding increases the dimensionless seepage resistance of water channeling regions and forces the subsequent injected water to turn to regions with streamline unswept remaining oil.The improvement of the water absorption profile by polymer-surfactant-PPG flooding and separated layer water injection contributes to displacing rhythm remaining oil and interlayer-controlled remaining oil.Finally,the paper analyzes the relationships between the remaining oil distribution after polymer flooding and production characteristics of infilling polymer-surfactant-PPG flooding.The study helps to deepen the understanding of infilling polymer-surfactant-PPG flooding and has reference significance for more commercial implementations in the future.

Mechanisms of oil displacement by ASP-foam and its influencing factors

ASP-foam （ASPF） is a system prepared by injecting natural gas into the conventional alkali- surfactant-polymer （ASP） system. Foam can be formed in the porous media by the interaction of gas and surfactant in the ASP system. With the ASPF system, oil recovery is improved as the interfacial tension （IFT） is reduced to a relatively low level, and the swept volume is enlarged. In this paper, four surfactants were evaluated and characterized by IFT between ASP system and oil and the foaming performance. AI- kyl benzene sulfonate （ORS-41） was chosen as the surfactant to best reduce IFT between displacement fluids and oil and improve the foaming performance. The mechanisms of ASPF flooding were studied in this paper, the results show that the ASPF flooding not only enlarges the swept volume but also enhances the displacement efficiency. The effects of reservoir heterogeneity, the gas-liquid ratio of ASPF system, and the concentrations of polymer and surfactant on the displacement efficiency were studied. A field trial of ASPF flooding has also been conducted. Both the laboratory results and the field trial results show that the ASPF flooding can significantly increase the oil recovery, with a 30% increase in the proportion of the original oil in place recovered compared with water flooding.

A New Type of Continuously Variable Displacement Mechanism Used for Hydraulic Motors

A continuously variable displacement mechanism, which is composed of a hydraulic control valve with mechanical-positional feedback to camshaft, was designed for changing the displacement of traditional camshaft connecting-rod low speed high torque (LSHT) hydraulic motor continuously. The new type of continuously variable displacement mechanism is simple and easy to be made. The structure and principle of a continuously variable displacement mechanism was introduced. The mathematic model of the continuously variable displacement mechanism was set up and its static and dynamic characteristics were analyzed with the help of computer simulation. It can be seen that the cam ring on camshaft of the traditional LSHT hydraulic motor can stop at any position between minimum and maximum eccentricity, according to an input fluid pressure signal. And it can also stay anywhere stably through self-adjusting. Besides, it can work stabilized when load impact or oil leakage exists.

Experimental investigation on stable displacement mechanism and oil recovery enhancement of oxygen-reduced air assisted gravity drainage

The effects of gravity,capillary force,and viscous force on the migration characteristics of oil and gas interface in oxygen-reduced air-assisted gravity drainage(OAGD)were studied through a two-dimensional visualization model.The effects of bond number,capillary number and low-temperature oxidation on OAGD recovery were studied by long core displacement experiments.On this basis,the low-temperature oxidation number was introduced and its relationship with the OAGD recovery was established.The results show that the shape and changing law of oil and gas front are mainly influenced by gravity,capillary force and viscous force.When the bond number is constant(4.52×10-4),the shape of oil-gas front is controlled by capillary number.When the capillary number is less than 1.68×10-3,the oil and gas interface is stable.When the capillary number is greater than 2.69×10-2,the oil and gas interface shows viscous fingering.When the capillary number is between 1.68×10-3 and 2.69×10-2,the oil and gas interface becomes capillary fingering.The core flooding experiments results show that for OAGD stable flooding,before the gas breakthrough,higher recovery is obtained in higher gravity number and lower capillary number.In this stage,gravity is predominant in controlling OAGD recovery and the oil recovery could be improved by reducing injection velocity.After gas breakthrough,higher recovery was obtained in lower gravity and higher capillary numbers,which means that the viscous force had a significant influence on the recovery.Increasing gas injection velocity in this stage is an effective measure to improve oil recovery.The low-temperature oxidation number has a good correlation with the recovery and can be used to predict the OAGD recovery.

DIRECT DISPLACEMENT OF PARALLEL MECHANISM WITH WAVELET NETWORK

A new method solution for the direct displacement of parallel mechanism, wavelet network method, is proposed. Comparing with the classical analytical and numerical methods, this method can be extended to any parallel mechanism with any selected degree of freedom and configuration. A wavelet network suiting to approach multi-input and multi-output system is constructed. The network is optimized by analyzing the sparseness of input data and selecting the fitting wavelets by orthogonalization method according to the output data. Then it is applied to solve the direct displace- ment of a general six-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism as a numerical example. For comparison purposes, a BP neural network is also used for this problem. Simulation results show that the wavelet network performs better than BP neural network. In addition, the wavelet network learns much faster than BP network.

The mechanism of hydraulic fracturing assisted oil displacement to enhance oil recovery in low and medium permeability reservoirs

Aiming at the technology of hydraulic fracturing assisted oil displacement which combines hydraulic fracturing,seepage and oil displacement,an experimental system of energy storage and flowback in fracturing assisted oil displacement process has been developed and used to simulate the mechanism of percolation,energy storage,oil displacement and flowback of chemical agents in the whole process.The research shows that in hydraulic fracturing assisted oil displacement,the chemical agent could be directly pushed to the deeper area of the low and medium permeability reservoirs,avoiding the viscosity loss and adhesion retention of chemical agents near the pay zone;in addition,this technology could effectively enlarge the swept volume,improve the oil displacement efficiency,replenish formation energy,gather and exploit the scattered residual oil.For the reservoir with higher permeability,this measure takes effect fast,so to lower cost,and the high pressure hydraulic fracturing assisted oil displacement could be adopted directly.For the reservoir with lower permeability which is difficult to absorb water,hydraulic fracturing assisted oil displacement with surfactant should be adopted to reduce flow resistance of the reservoir and improve the water absorption capacity and development effect of the reservoir.The degree of formation energy deficit was the main factor affecting the effective swept range of chemical agents.Moreover,the larger the formation energy deficit was,the further the seepage distance of chemical agents was,accordingly,the larger the effective swept volume was,and the greater the increase of oil recovery was.Formation energy enhancement was the most important contribution to enhanced oil recovery(EOR),which was the key to EOR by the technology of hydraulic fracturing assisted oil displacement.

Progress and prospect of carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage in CNPC oilfields

The development history of carbon capture,utilization and storage for enhanced oil recovery(CCUS-EOR)in China is comprehensively reviewed,which consists of three stages:research and exploration,field test and industrial application.The breakthrough understanding of CO_(2) flooding mechanism and field practice in recent years and the corresponding supporting technical achievements of CCUS-EOR project are systematically described.The future development prospects are also pointed out.After nearly 60 years of exploration,the theory of CO_(2) flooding and storage suitable for continental sedimentary reservoirs in China has been innovatively developed.It is suggested that C7–C15 are also important components affecting miscibility of CO_(2) and crude oil.The mechanism of rapid recovery of formation energy by CO_(2) and significant improvement of block productivity and recovery factor has been verified in field tests.The CCUS-EOR reservoir engineering design technology for continental sedimentary reservoir is established.The technology of reservoir engineering parameter design and well spacing optimization has been developed,which focuses on maintaining miscibility to improve oil displacement efficiency and uniform displacement to improve sweep efficiency.The technology of CO_(2) capture,injection and production process,whole-system anticorrosion,storage monitoring and other whole-process supporting technologies have been initially formed.In order to realize the efficient utilization and permanent storage of CO_(2),it is necessary to take the oil reservoir in the oil-water transition zone into consideration,realize the large-scale CO_(2) flooding and storage in the area from single reservoir to the overall structural control system.The oil reservoir in the oil-water transition zone is developed by stable gravity flooding of injecting CO_(2) from structural highs.The research on the storage technology such as the conversion of residual oil and CO_(2) into methane needs to be carried out.

Micro-mechanisms of residual oil mobilization by viscoelastic fluids

Four typical types of residual oil, residual oil trapped in dead ends, oil ganglia in pore throats, oil at pore corners and oil film adhered to pore walls, were studied. According to main pore structure characteristics and the fundamental morphological features of residual oil, four displacement models for residual oil were proposed, in which pore-scale flow behavior of viscoelastic fluid was analyzed by a numerical method and micro-mechanisms for mobilization of residual oil were discussed. Calculated results indicate that the viscoelastic effect enhances micro displacement efficiency and increases swept volume. For residual oil trapped in dead ends, the flow field of viscoelastic fluid is developed in dead ends more deeply, resulting in more contact with oil by the displacing fluid, and consequently increasing swept volume. In addition, intense viscoelastic vortex has great stress, under which residual oil becomes small oil ganglia, and finally be carried into main channels. For residual oil at pore throats, its displacement mechanisms are similar to the oil trapped in dead ends. Vortices are developed in the depths of the throats and oil ganglia become smaller. Besides, viscoelastic fluid causes higher pressure drop on oil ganglia, as a driving force, which can overcome capillary force, consequently, flow direction can be changed and the displacing fluid enter smaller throats. For oil at pore corners, viscoelastic fluid can enhance displacement efficiency as a result of greater velocity and stress near the corners. For residual oil adhered to pore wall, viscoelastic fluid can provide a greater displacing force on the interface between viscoelastic fluid and oil, thus, making it easier to exceed the minimum interfacial tension for mobilizing the oil film.

Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation of Polymer Flooding

The numerical simulation of polymer flooding is a complex task as this process involves complex physical and chemical reactions,and multiple sets of characteristic parameters are required to properly set the simulation.At present,such characteristic parameters are mainly obtained by empirical methods,which typically result in relatively large errors.By analyzing experimentally polymer adsorption,permeability decline,inaccessible pore volume,viscosity-concentration relationship,and rheology,in this study,a conversion equation is provided to convert the experimental data into the parameters needed for the numerical simulation.Some examples are provided to demonstrate the reliability of the proposed approach.

Experimental characterization and mechanism of hydraulic pulsation waves driving microscopic residual oil

To clarify microscopic mechanisms of residual oil displacement by hydraulic pulsation wave,microscopic visualization experiments of hydraulic pulsation wave driving residual oil were carried out by using the microscopic visualization device of pulsating water drive.For the four types of residual oil left in the reservoir after water flooding,i.e.membrane,column,cluster,and blind end residual oils,hydraulic pulsation waves broke the micro-equilibrium of the interface by disturbing the oil-water interface,so that the injected water invaded into and contacted with the remaining oil in small pores and blind holes,and the remaining oil was pushed or stripped to the mainstream channel by deformation superposition effect and then carried out by the injected water.In the displacement,the pulsation frequency mainly affected the cluster and blind end remaining oil,and the hydraulic pulsation wave with a frequency of about 1 Hz had the best effect in improving the recovery.The pulsation amplitude value mainly affected the membrane and column residual oil,and the larger the amplitude value,the more remaining oil the hydraulic pulsation wave would displace.The presence of low intensity continuous flow pressure and holding pressure end pressure promoted the concentration of pulsating energy and greatly improve the recovery of cluster residual oil.The rise in temperature made the hydraulic pulsation wave work better in displacing remaining oil,improving the efficiency of oil flooding.

Ambipolar tribotronic transistor of MoTe_(2)

Two-dimensional(2D)tribotronic devices have been successfully involved in electromechanical modulation for channel conductance and applied in intelligent sensing system,touch screen,and logic gates.Ambipolar transistors and corresponding complementary inverters based on one type of semiconductors are highly promising due to the facile fabrication process and readily tunable polarity.Here,we demonstrate an ambipolar tribotronic transistor of molybdenum ditelluride(MoTe_(2)),which shows typical ambipolar transport properties modulated by triboelectric potential.It is comprised of a MoTe_(2)transistor and a lateral sliding triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG).The induced triboelectric potential by Maxwell’s displacement current(a driving force for TENG)can readily modulate the transport properties of both electrons and holes in MoTe_(2)channel and effectively drive the transistor.High performance tribotronic properties have been achieved,including low cutoff current below 1 pA·μm^(−1)and high current on/off ratio of~103 for holes and electrons dominated transports.The working mechanism on how to achieve tribotronic ambipolarity is discussed in detail.A complementary tribotronic inverter based on single flake of MoTe_(2)is also demonstrated with low power consumption and high stability.This work presents an active approach to efficiently modulate semiconductor devices and logic circuits based on 2D materials through external mechanical signal,which has great potential in human–machine interaction,intelligent sensor,and other wearable devices.

Characters of the Plateau of Methanol Increment in Frontal Analysis in Reversed Phase Liquid Chromatography

With insulin methanol water, and the ion pairing agent, hydrochloric acid and trifluroacetic acid (TFA), the character of the first plateau (FP) on the elution curve of frontal analysis in reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) was investigated by on line UV spectrometry and identified with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry and mass spectrometry. The profile of the FP is the same as that of a usual elution curve of methanol in frontal analysis (FA). When the insulin concentration was limited to a certain range, the height of the FP was found to be proportional to the insulin concentration in mobile phase and its length companying to shorten. The FP profile on the intersection of two tangents reflects the components of the microstructure in the depth direction of the bonded stationary phase layer and the desorption dynamics of the displaced components. The displaced methanol was quantitatively determined by NMR and on line UV spectrometries. TFA with high UV absorbance can not be used as an ion pairing agent for the investigation of the FP in RPLC, but it can be used as a good marker to investigate the complicated transfer process of components in the stationary phase in RPLC. A stoichiometric displacement process between solute and solvent was proved to be valid in both usual and FA in RPLC. From the point of view of dynamics of mass transfer, the solutes can only contact to the surface of stationary phase in usual RPLC, while solute can penetrate into it in FA of RPLC. The solvation of insulin in methanol and water solution as an example indicating the usage of the FP in the FA was also investigated in this paper.