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ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS
Displacement mechanisms;
experimental; Nano
particles; polymer-surfactant
floods; wettability alteration
1. Introduction
Waterflooding is one of the most common conventional methods to increase oil production;
however, most residual oil is difficult to get displaced during this process. Chemical enhanced oil
recovery (EOR) methods are the most novel procedures to increase oil recovery by adding chemicals
to improve the properties of water as the displacing phase.
The main concept of polymer flooding is affecting the sweep efficiency. Sweep efficiency is
defined as the ratio of oil volume contacted by displacing agent to initial volume of oil in place.
Sweep efficiency is influenced by mobility ratio, pore structure, reservoir rock wettability, reservoir
heterogeneity, and properties of fractures (Craig, 1971). Argabright et al. (1982) showed that
hydrolyzed solution of polyacrylamide enhances oil recovery by controlling the water mobility and
increasing the sweep efficiency because of an increase in water viscosity and reduction in its relative
permeability.
One of the most simple and inexpensive EOR methods is dilute surfactant flooding. Surfactants
are absorbed on the interface of liquids and decrease the interfacial tension. Akstinat (1981) surveyed
different surfactants that were used in EOR. He did his experiment in high salinity conditions.
CONTACT Mohammad Sedaghat
m.sedaghat66@gmail.com
Dashtestan Branch, Dashtestan, 7561654657 Iran.
2016 Taylor & Francis
23
Barakat et al. (1983) investigated the role of surfactants chemical structure on determination of
interfacial tension (IFT). Imbibition capillary rate of surfactants and polymer were compared by
Babadagli (2001). He found that adding surfactants increases the ultimate oil recovery.
Polymer and surfactant flooding are two important and high efficiency chemical flooding
processes. However, it seems that a combination of these two processes can have synergistic effects
and so efficiency of both processes can be increased with their combination (Maldal et al., 1998).
Many surfactant-polymer flooding works were performed in the 1970s (Salager et al., 1979; Bennet
et al., 1981). Application of simultaneous polymer and surfactant flooding can improve microscopic
and macroscopic sweep efficiency (Sedaghat et al., 2011).
The tendency of a surface to contact with a fluid is called wettability. This concept is assessed by
measuring the contact angle between a fluid droplet and the surface. If the contact angle is lower
than 60, the fluid makes the surface wet, and if the angle is greater than 90, the fluid does not make
the surface wet. Wettability is affected by: (1) surface adsorption and desorption, (2) rock mineralogy, and (3) the film deposition and spreading capability of the oleic phase (Maghzi et al., 2011).
Usually, the presence of a large polar compound, such as asphaltenes, in the oil phase enables the
adsorption onto the solid surface leaving an oil film, which may alter the rock surface wettability
(Dandekar et al., 2008).
Among the many parameters that influence the fluid flow and oil recovery in porous media,
wettability of the medium is too important (Agbalaka et al., 2008). Some work has been reported in
the literature about the role of wettability on fluid flow in porous media and pore scale microscopic
mechanisms (Sander Suicmez et al., 2008; Jamaloei and Kharrat 2010; Dehghan et al., 2010; Blunt,
2001). In oil-wet rocks, due to the tendency of oil that sticks to the pores walls and traps in dead
ends, the efficiency of waterflooding is lower. Comprehensive investigations have been done on the
wettability effect on fluid flow and displacement mechanisms in porous media (Maghzi et al., 2011);
however, limited surveys have been done on the mechanisms of wettability alteration. Here, Nano
silica, SiO2, with TiO2 during polymer-surfactant flooding has been compared.
In this study, a two-dimensional five-spot glassy micromodel was used to investigate the role of
Nano particles on wettability alteration. Two Nano particles were used to survey this effect on
polymer-surfactant flooding. Since HPAM 3330 and SDS are the most common commercial
materials in this process, they are used as, respectively, polymer and surfactant that constitute the
solutions.
2. Experimental setup
The experimental equipment and micromodel preparation process is the same as that done by
Dehghan et al. (2010). The micromodel is a porous medium with the porosity, permeability, and
coordinate number of 52.48, 1600 mD, and 4, respectively. Its width and length are both 60 mm and
the pores are cubic.
2.1. Test fluids
TiO2 and SiO2 were used as Nano particles in the aqueous displacing phase. The properties of these
materials are shown in Table 1. Also, HPAM 3330 at the concentration of 1200 ppm and SDS at the
concentration of 2000 ppm were used as polymer and surfactant, respectively, to create the polymersurfactant solution with/without Nano particles.
Table 1. Nano Particle Physical Properties.
Particle
SiO2
TiO2
Average Size, nm
14
14
24
M. H. SEDAGHAT ET AL.
Point One,
62
10
14
25
30
135
Point Two,
61
8
16
21
31
135
Point Three,
60
11
14
23
30
137
25
intensified water-wet condition. Then, it is TiO2 Nano fluid that results in wettability alteration to
water-wet. Polymeric solutions are ranked below the Nano fluids. It seems that absorption of
polymer interrupts the absorption of Nano particles and decreases their efficiency. This lower
absorption is because of the presence of polymer and surfactant molecules. Similarly, the polymeric
solution, which contains SiO2 Nano particle, has resulted in a lower contact angle in comparison
with another Nano-polymeric solution.
Figure 1. Recovery vs. injected pore volume of two Nano particles at different concentartions dispersed in water.
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M. H. SEDAGHAT ET AL.
Figure 2. Recovery vs. injected pore volume of two Nano particles dispersed in polymer-surfactant solution.
27
Figure 3. The micromodel after (a) waterflooding, (b) SiO2 Nano fluid flooding, (c) polymer surfactant flooding, and (d) SiO2polymer surfactant flooding.
4. Conclusions
Based on the obtained results the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) SiO2 and TiO2 Nano fluids cause a change in the wettability of the system to water-wet and
increase in oil production. SiO2 Nano fluid has a more significant effect on the decrease in
contact angle. Also, adding SiO2 and TiO2 Nano particles to polymer-surfactant solution
leads to an increase in oil production.
(2) SiO2 Nano fluid leads to a higher oil recovery in comparison with TiO2 Nano fluid.
(3) Although the fluid that contains water with dissolved Nano particles results in a lower
contact angle in comparison with the polymer-surfactant solution with dissolved Nano
particles, flooding the polymer-surfactant solution with dissolved Nano particles leads to a
higher oil recovery due to its higher viscosity that leads to thinner films.
(4) Time, thickness of the stuck oily film, and concentration are three main key parameters that
control the efficiency of Nano fluid flooding.
(5) The pulling and emulsification mechanisms are more effective than wettability alteration
mechanism. Thus, focusing on polymer and surfactant properties may be seriously
recommended.
(6) Regardless of presence/absence of Nano particles, oil wad transportation mechanism is an
obvious process during polymer-surfactant flooding.
28
M. H. SEDAGHAT ET AL.
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