2 research outputs found
Effects of Core Size and Surfactant Choice on Fluid Saturation Development in Surfactant/Polymer Corefloods
Surfactant/polymer
flooding allows for a significant increase in
oil recovered at both laboratory and field scales. Limitations in
application at the reservoir scale are, however, present and can be
associated with both the complexity of the underlying displacement
process and the time-intensive nature of the up-scaling workflow.
Pivotal to this workflow are corefloods which serve to both validate
the extent of oil recovery and extract modeling parameters used in
upscaling. To enhance the understanding of the evolution of the saturation
distribution within the rock sample, we present the utilization of
X-ray computed tomography to image six distinct surfactant/polymer
corefloods. In doing so, we visualize the formation and propagation
of an oil bank by reconstructing multidimensional saturation maps.
We conduct experiments on three distinct core sizes and two different
surfactants, an SBDS/isbutanol formulation and an L-145-10s 90 formulation,
in order to decouple the effect of these two parameters on the flow
behavior observed in situ. We note that the oil production post oil
bank breakthrough is primarily influenced by the surfactant choice,
with the SDBS/isobutanol formulation displaying longer tailing production
of a low oil cut. On the other hand, the core size dominated the extent
of self-similarity of the saturation profiles with smaller cores showing
less overlap in the self-similarity profiles. Consequently, we highlight
the difference in applicability of a fractional flow approach to larger
and smaller cores for upscaling parameter extraction and thus provide
guidance for corefloods where direct imaging is not available
Thermoresponsive Block Copolymer Core–Shell Nanoparticles with Tunable Flow Behavior in Porous Media
With the purpose of investigating new polymeric materials
as potential
flow modifiers for their future application in enhanced oil recovery
(EOR), a series of amphiphilic poly(di(ethylene glycol) methyl ether
methacrylate-co-oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether
methacrylate) [P(DEGMA-co-OEGMA)]-based core–shell
nanoparticles were prepared by aqueous reversible addition–fragmentation
chain transfer-mediated polymerization-induced self-assembly. The
developed nano-objects were shown to be thermoresponsive, demonstrating
a reversible lower-critical solution temperature (LCST)-type phase
transition with increasing solution temperature. Characterization
of their thermoresponsive nature by variable-temperature UV–vis
and dynamic light scattering analyses revealed that these particles
reversibly aggregate when heated above their LCST and that the critical
transition temperature could be accurately tuned by simply altering
the molar ratio of core-forming monomers. Sandpack experiments were
conducted to evaluate their pore-blocking performance at low flow
rates in a porous medium heated at temperatures above their LCST.
This analysis revealed that particles aggregated in the sandpack column
and caused pore blockage with a significant reduction in the porous
medium permeability. The developed aggregates and the increased pressure
generated by the blockage were found to remain stable under the injection
of brine and were observed to rapidly dissipate upon reducing the
temperature below the LCST of each formulation. Further investigation
by double-column sandpack analysis showed that the blockage was able
to reform when re-heated and tracked the thermal front. Moreover,
the rate of blockage formation was observed to be slower when the
LCST of the injected particles was higher. Our investigation is expected
to pave the way for the design of “smart” and versatile
polymer technologies for EOR applications in future studies