Evaluation of solution and rheological properties for hydrophobically associated polyacrylamide copolymer as a promised enhanced oil recovery candidate

Crude oil is the most critical energy source in the world, especially for transportation, provision of heat and light as there has not been a sufficient energy source to replace crude oil has broadly integrated, so there is an urgent need to maximize the extraction of the original oil in-place for every reservoir, and accelerating the development of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies. Polymer flooding by hydrophobically associated polyacrylamides (HAPAM) is a widely used technique through EOR technology. For successful application of these polymers, one should evaluate rheological and solution properties at simulated reservoir conditions as a function of polymer concentration, salinity, temperature and shear rate. The results showed that these copolymers exhibit favorable salt tolerance, temperature resistance, and recoverable viscosity after shearing, reasonable thickening behavior and improved viscosity enhancement properties due to presence of hydrophobic association in the copolymer main chains. Moreover, its capacity for oil production improvement was evaluated during flooding experiments through one dimensional sandstone model at simulated reservoir conditions

Hydrophobically associated polymers for wettability alteration and enhanced oil recovery – Article review

Crude oil and other petroleum products are crucial to the global economy today due to increasing energy demand approximately (∼1.5%) per year and significant oil remaining after primary and secondary oil recovery (∼45–55% of original oil in place, OOIP), which accelerates the development of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies to maximize the recovered oil amount by non-conventional methods as polymer flooding. This review discusses enhanced oil recovery methods specially polymer flooding techniques and their effects on rock wettability alteration