Experimental Investigation of Nanoparticle Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques Using Micromodels PDF Download

Author: Ayub Khezrnejad
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Nanotechnology has found widespread application in a diverse range of industries. Researchers are now investigating whether nanotechnology can be applied to enhance oil recovery. The goal of enhanced oil recovery is to manipulate the fluid-fluid properties (interfacial tension, viscosity), and fluid-rock properties (contact angle, relative permeability) to improve pore scale recovery efficiency. In this study, nanofluids were prepared and injected into micromodels to study their effectiveness on oil recovery. Silicon oxide and aluminum oxide nanoparticles were used. Nanofluid viscosity and interfacial tension between nanofluid and oil was measured and modeled. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effect of the factors and their interactions. Fluid characterization data shows that nanoparticles are effective in both interfacial tension reduction and viscosity enhancement. The results from the micromodel studies indicate that adding a small amount of nanoparticles to the brine can enhance oil recovery by approximately 10 % - 20 %.

Author: Wafaa Al-Shatty
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781471733925
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a tertiary process whereby oil is extracted from an oil field that could not otherwise be extracted. As such EOR can extract 30%-60% of a reservoir's oil in place (OIP) compared to 20% to 40% using primary and secondary methods. While there is a clear economical advantage (depending on the current price of oil), there is also an environmental impact of EOR. On the positive side, EOR can be used in place of drilling additional wells, while on the other hand EOR results in large quantities of produced water which must be correctly disposed of or treated. One of the reasons that not all the reservoir oil is readily recovered without EOR is that there is significant surface tension between the oil and the reservoir rock. The injection of various chemicals, usually as dilute solutions, have been used to aid mobility through the reduction in surface tension and interfacial tension. Although dilute solutions of surfactants and polymers have been deployed commercially, there is a desire to develop both more efficient chemicals as well as those with reduced environmental impact. One such class of potential EOR additive are nanomaterials (sized between 1 and 100 nm), due to their high surface-to-volume ratio, wettability control, and interfacial tension reduction. The use of nanomaterials to EOR is a very attractive, yet challenging task, because prior to deployment in a reservoir it is necessary to gain an understanding of the relative performance of nanomaterials as compared to traditional methods. Although core flood methods offer a quantitative value for oil recovery, they do not provide detailed insight into mechanism. Micromodels have been used as a flexible method for determining the efficacy of nanomaterials as well as combinations of nanomaterials with surfactants and polymers. This book is aimed at providing an overview of methods whereby nanomaterials can be investigated with regard to EOR.

Author: Wendi Kuang
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781687962522
Category : Enhanced oil recovery
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
As major fractions of oil are left unexploited in reservoirs, novel enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are needed to recover larger portions of the fluid. Nanofluids have been reported to impact multi-phase flow behavior by various means. Nonetheless, the significance of some of the proposed effects is under debate, and the fundamental pore-scale mechanisms responsible for nanofluid-assisted EOR remain unexplained. In this work, we present the results of a multi-scale experimental study designed to develop a significantly improved understanding of the nanofluid-assisted EOR scheme. We first developed a stability assessment protocol to test the stability of, in total, eighteen nanofluids. Subsequently, the effects of stable nanofluids on interfacial properties were carefully characterized. Moreover, in order to probe the mechanisms of nanofluids at the pore scale, a miniature core-flooding apparatus, coupled with a high-resolution X-ray micro-CT scanner, was used to conduct experiments on rock samples. Oil production performance by spontaneous imbibition of both SiOx- and Al2O3-based nanofluids were tested in aged sandstone and dolomite samples. Furthermore, the effects of SiOx-based nanofluids on wettability were carefully evaluated by performing a pore-scale core-flooding experiment on oil-wet Berea sandstone samples at high-pressure and high-temperature conditions. This study reveals that wettability reversal is the primary factor responsible for the observed recovery enhancement when the selected nanofluids are introduced. While the effect of IFT reduction by nanofluids, which has been reported in some studies as a controlling factor, is less significant. However, we observed that the inclusion of surfactant in nanofluids could result in even higher oil recovery by triggering a synergistic effect through simultaneous wettability reversal and IFT reduction. By analyzing the fluid occupancy maps on a pore-by-pore basis, we observed that wettability reversal enabled the invasion of the displacing fluid into small pores by producing an imbibition flow process; while IFT reduction helped the displacing fluid to invade into pores that remained oil-wet. The combined effect of the former and the later phenomena produced the above-mentioned synergistic effect and generated superior oil recovery performance.

Author: Patrizio Raffa
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110640430
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
This book aims at presenting, describing, and summarizing the latest advances in polymer flooding regarding the chemical synthesis of the EOR agents and the numerical simulation of compositional models in porous media, including a description of the possible applications of nanotechnology acting as a booster of traditional chemical EOR processes. A large part of the world economy depends nowadays on non-renewable energy sources, most of them of fossil origin. Though the search for and the development of newer, greener, and more sustainable sources have been going on for the last decades, humanity is still fossil-fuel dependent. Primary and secondary oil recovery techniques merely produce up to a half of the Original Oil In Place. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes are aimed at further increasing this value. Among these, chemical EOR techniques (including polymer flooding) present a great potential in low- and medium-viscosity oilfields. • Describes recent advances in chemical enhanced oil recovery. • Contains detailed description of polymer flooding and nanotechnology as promising boosting tools for EOR. • Includes both experimental and theoretical studies. About the Authors Patrizio Raffa is Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen. He focuses on design and synthesis of new polymeric materials optimized for industrial applications such as EOR, coatings and smart materials. He (co)authored about 40 articles in peer reviewed journals. Pablo Druetta works as lecturer at the University of Groningen (RUG) and as engineering consultant. He received his Ph.D. from RUG in 2018 and has been teaching at a graduate level for 15 years. His research focus lies on computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Author: Rahul Saha
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000433617
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
Sustainable world economy requires a steady supply of crude oil without any production constraints. Thus, the ever-increasing energy demand of the entire world can be mostly met through the enhanced production from crude oil from existing reservoirs. With the fact that newer reservoirs with large quantities of crude oil could not be explored at a faster pace, it will be inevitable to produce the crude oil from matured reservoirs at an affordable cost. Among alternate technologies, the chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique has promising potential to recover residual oil from matured reservoirs being subjected to primary and secondary water flooding operations. Due to pertinent complex phenomena that often have a combinatorial role and influence, the implementation of chemical EOR schemes such as alkali/surfactant/polymer flooding and their combinations necessitates upon a fundamental understanding of the potential mechanisms and their influences upon one another and desired response variables. Addressing these issues, the book attempts to provide useful screening criteria, guidelines, and rules of thumb for the identification of process parametric sets (including reservoir characteristics) and response characteristics (such as IFT, adsorption etc.,) that favor alternate chemical EOR systems. Finally, the book highlights the relevance of nanofluid/nanoparticle for conventional and unconventional reservoirs and serves as a needful resource to understand the emerging oil recovery technology. Overall, the volume will be of greater relevance for practicing engineers and consultants that wish to accelerate on field applications of chemical and nano-fluid EOR systems. Further, to those budding engineers that wish to improvise upon their technical know-how, the book will serve as a much-needed repository.

Author: William Christopher Van Bramer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The injection of nanoparticles is a promising and novel approach to enhancing oil recovery in depleted fields. Nanoparticles have one dimension that is smaller than 100 nm and have many unique properties that are useful when it comes to oil recovery. Their small size and the ability to manipulate particle properties are a couple of the advantageous properties. The small size of nanoparticle allows them to easily pass through porous media. Manipulating nanoparticle properties allows for wettability modifications or controlled release of chemicals at a precise location in the formation. Injection of nanoparticle dispersions for secondary or tertiary recovery in corefloods has yielded positive results. Field tests using nanoparticles have also yielded positive results with increased oil recovery. While there has been a sizable amount of work related to corefloods, limited investigation has been reported using micromodels. Micromodels are valuable because they allow for pore scale viewing of the oil recovery, which is not possible with corefloods. In this research both polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and glass microfluidic devices were fabricated to test the EOR potential of different types of nanoparticles. Much of the work described in this thesis involved the use of a dead-end pore geometry to trap oil. First the pore space was filled with oil and then waterflooded. This left some oil trapped in the dead-end pores. PDMS micromodels proved difficult to trap oil in the dead-end pores; because of this glass micromodels were tested. After trapping oil, a nanoparticle dispersion was injected into the pore space to test the potential of the dispersion to reduce the residual oil saturation in the dead-end pores. The nanoparticle dispersion was injected at different flow rates (1 [mu]l/hr to 50 [mu]l/hr) to test the effect of flow rate on residual oil recovery.

Author: James J.Sheng
Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing
ISBN: 0080961630
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
Crude oil development and production in U.S. oil reservoirs can include up to three distinct phases: primary, secondary, and tertiary (or enhanced) recovery. During primary recovery, the natural pressure of the reservoir or gravity drive oil into the wellbore, combined with artificial lift techniques (such as pumps) which bring the oil to the surface. But only about 10 percent of a reservoir's original oil in place is typically produced during primary recovery. Secondary recovery techniques to the field's productive life generally by injecting water or gas to displace oil and drive it to a production wellbore, resulting in the recovery of 20 to 40 percent of the original oil in place. In the past two decades, major oil companies and research organizations have conducted extensive theoretical and laboratory EOR (enhanced oil recovery) researches, to include validating pilot and field trials relevant to much needed domestic commercial application, while western countries had terminated such endeavours almost completely due to low oil prices. In recent years, oil demand has soared and now these operations have become more desirable. This book is about the recent developments in the area as well as the technology for enhancing oil recovery. The book provides important case studies related to over one hundred EOR pilot and field applications in a variety of oil fields. These case studies focus on practical problems, underlying theoretical and modelling methods, operational parameters (e.g., injected chemical concentration, slug sizes, flooding schemes and well spacing), solutions and sensitivity studies, and performance optimization strategies. The book strikes an ideal balance between theory and practice, and would be invaluable to academicians and oil company practitioners alike. - Updated chemical EOR fundamentals providing clear picture of fundamental concepts - Practical cases with problems and solutions providing practical analogues and experiences - Actual data regarding ranges of operation parameters providing initial design parameters - Step-by-step calculation examples providing practical engineers with convenient procedures

Author: Ariffin Samsuri
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1789851076
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Concerned with production decline, shortages of new oil reserves, and increasing world energy demand, the oil sector continues to search for economic and efficient techniques to enhance their oil recovery from the existing oil field using several enhanced oil recovery techniques (EOR)methods. Despite its highefficiency, widely acclaimed potentials, and limitations, the Low Salinity Water Flooding (LSWF), hybrid, and nanotechnology applications have gained vast interest with promising future to increase ultimate oil recovery, tackle operational challenges, reduce environmental damage, and allow the highest feasible recoveries with lower production costs. This synergistic combination has opened new routes for novel materials with fascinating properties. This book aims to provide an overview of EOR technology such as LSWF, hybrid, and nanotechnology applications in EOR processes.

Author: Renfeng Jiang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The application of nanotechnology in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is emerging because nanoparticles have the potential to alter rock properties like wettability and fluid properties such as interfacial tension (IFT). In addition, a newly-proposed theory of the structural disjoining pressure (SDP) has become popular in the scientific community as well. However, a systematic literature review shows that ambiguity exists regarding which components in nanofluid play the role of changing wettability and interfacial tension (IFT). In addition, there are only a limited number of numerical and experimental studies to investigate the theory of the structural disjoining pressure (SDP), none of which can strictly confirm the theory. This motivates us to study these potential candidates of the mechanisms of nano-enhanced oil recovery (nano-EOR). We first conducted experiments using the contact angle goniometer to measure the contact angle and the interfacial tension (IFT) for various nanofluid compositions and the results showed that the addition of bare silica nanoparticles could reduce the contact angle. Specifically, a reduction in nanoparticle size and an increase in nanofluid concentration could further reduce the contact angle. However, bare nanoparticles did not change the interfacial tension (IFT). In order to investigate the theory of the structural disjoining pressure (SDP), we extended the model with a configuration that simulates the real case of the detachment of an oil droplet. The results showed that four conditions favor the spreading of the nanofluid on the substrate and the detachment of the oil droplet from the substrate to which it attached due to the structural disjoining pressure (SDP). These conditions include a high nanofluid concentration, a small nanoparticle size, a small contact angle of the nanofluid/oil/substrate system looking from the nanofluid phase, and a large oil droplet. Three imaging experiments were conducted using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and dynamic fluid-film interferometry (DFI) to verify the theory of nanofluid spreading due to the structural disjoining pressure (SDP). ESEM imaging experiments showed the result of a single layer of nanoparticles but could not eliminate the effect of evaporation. Combining the ESEM images with the results from DFI in a liquid cell eliminated the evaporation effect and confirmed that nanoparticles are capable of spreading over the substrate in a thin film that is composed of one single layer of nanoparticles. Moreover, an experiment into the extension of the coffee ring effect showed the discovery of a new coffee ring pattern. Finally, we conducted a nanofluid flooding experiment using carbonate rocks. It was able to isolate the effect of the two confirmed mechanisms on the oil recovery rate at core-scale and tested the potential of nano-enhanced oil recovery (nano-EOR) at core-scale. We determined that an increase in oil recovery of 6% was due to the wettability alteration and another 6% increase in oil recovery was due to the mechanism of the structural disjoining pressure (SDP) for our low permeable carbonate core.

Author: Lalit Pandey
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811654654
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This book presents the fundamentals of the reservoir and interfacial engineering. The book systematically starts with the basics of primary, secondary and tertiary (enhanced) oil recovery and emphasizes on the theory of microbial-enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) and its potential toward recovery of oil in place. Different approaches of MEOR such as in-situ, ex-situ, and integration of chemical- and microbial-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) are discussed in detail. This book highlights the link between the effectiveness of MEOR and the local reservoir conditions, crude oil characteristics, and indigenous microbial community. The latest implementations of MEOR across the globe are highlighted as case studies to outline the potential as well as the scope of MEOR. Given the topics covered, this book will be useful for professionals and researchers working in the areas of petroleum science and engineering, chemical engineering, biotechnology, bioengineering, and other related fields.