Flow Behavior and Displacement Mechanisms of Nanoparticle Stabilized Foam Flooding for Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery

نویسندگان

  • Teng Lu
  • Yan Zhou
  • Dongsheng Wen
چکیده

In this study, nanoparticle stabilized foam experiments were performed in bulk tests, micromodels, and sandpacks at elevated temperatures and pressures to investigate the flow behavior and displacement mechanisms for enhanced heavy oil recovery. The results from the bulk tests showed that the stability of the foam and oil in water (O/W) emulsion improved when silica nanoparticles (SiO2) were added, compared with the anionic surfactant alone. Also, the SiO2 nanoparticles increased the dilatational viscoelasticity of the gas-water interface, which is an important fluid property and mechanism for improving heavy oil recovery. The micromodel studies demonstrated that several gas bubbles and oil droplets were stably dispersed during the nanoparticle stabilized foam flooding. The gas bubbles and oil droplets plug pores through capture-plugging and bridge-plugging, thereby increasing the sweep efficiency. The trapped residual oil is gradually pushed to the pores by the elastic forces of bubbles. Subsequently, the residual oil is pulled into oil threads by the flowing gas bubbles. Then, a greater improvement in displacement efficiency is obtained. The sandpack tests showed that the tertiary oil recovery of nanoparticle stabilized foam flooding can reach about 27% using 0.5 wt % SiO2 nanoparticles. The foam slug size of 0.3 pore volume (PV) and the gas liquid ratio (GLR) of 3:1 were found to be the optimum conditions in terms of heavy oil recovery by nanoparticle stabilized foam flooding in this study. A continuous nanoparticle dispersion and N2 could be more effective compared with the cyclic injection pattern.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Optimized polymer enhanced foam flooding for ordinary heavy oil reservoir after cross-linked polymer flooding

A successful cross-linked polymer flooding has been implemented in JD reservoir, an ordinary heavy oil reservoir with high permeability zones. For all that, there are still significant volumes of continuous oil remaining in place, which can not be easily extracted due to stronger vertical heterogeneity. Considering selective plugging feature, polymer enhanced foam (PEF) flooding was taken as fo...

متن کامل

Numerical Calculation of Flow Characteristics of Enhanced Foam System in Porous Medium

Abstract: Enhanced foam flooding is a chemical flooding technology, which is applied to improve the recovery efficiency of oil and gas. The oil displacement agent of enhanced foam flooding is a foam that the polymer and surfactant solution as liquid. In this paper, three-dimensional mathematical model of unsteady flow is established about enhanced foam system in the porous media, and the numeri...

متن کامل

Experimental Study of Foam Flooding in Low Permeability Sandstones: Effects of Rock Permeability and Microscopic Heterogeneity

Foam flooding (or injection of foam) is a common technology to enhance oil recovery. Although the effects of permeability on foam flooding were well studied in many laboratory experiments, little research has been focused on the specificity of low permeability. In this paper, a series of constant-quality nitrogen foam flow experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of permeability on...

متن کامل

Investigation of Chemical-Foam Design as a Novel Approach toward Immiscible Foam Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Strong foam can be generated in porous media containing oil, resulting in incremental oil recovery; however, oil recovery factor is restricted. A large fraction of oil recovered by foam flooding forms an oil-in-water emulsion, so that costly methods may need to be used to separate the oil. Moreover, strong foam could create a large pressure gradient, which may cause fractures in the reservoir. ...

متن کامل

The Performance Evaluation of Viscous-Modified Surfactant Water Flooding in Heavy Oil Reservoirs at Varying Salinity of Injected Polymer-Contained Surfactant Solution

This study examines the effects of change in the concentrations of monovalent and divalent ions in the polymer-contained surfactant solution on the macroscopic behavior of viscous-modified surfactant waterflooding in heavy oil reservoirs. Salts that are used in this set of floods were sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, and calcium chloride. The results indicate that four different ranges ...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2017