The application of nanotechnology in the oil industry has become a useful approach in oil production. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of nanofluids on the recovery of heavy crude oil compared to water flooding. The nanofluids are prepared by the addition of pure and mixed nanoparticles; Silicon oxide, Aluminum oxide, Nickel oxide, and Titanium oxide at different concentrations to the saline water. The prepared nanofluids were screened to determine the suitable type for the heavy oil and rock samples subjected to the study. The effects of nanofluids on the interfacial tension and emulsion viscosity were also investigated. Nanofluids flooding tests were performed on heavy oil sample of 17.45 API using Berea Sandstone core samples with an average air permeability of 184 mD, a liquid permeability of 60 mD, and a porosity of 20%. After selecting the recommended type of nanofluid, additional tests were performed including the effects on asphaltene precipitation using a flow assurance system. The experimental results show that, the Aluminum oxide nanofluid at a concentration of 0.05 wt.% reduced the emulsion viscosity by 25%. The mixed nanofluid of Silicon and Aluminum oxide at 0.05 wt.% showed the highest incremental oil recovery among the other nanofluids. This nanofluid is expected to be the best type of chemical flooding due to its performance under reservoir condition (high pressure, temperature, and water salinity) and its capability to oppose asphaltene precipitation.
One of the main challenges associated with the production of heavy or extra-heavy crude oil is transportation of the oil by pipelines, particularly without the prior reduction of the oil viscosity to acceptable values to ensure oil fluidity in the pipelines. The reduction of viscosity can be obtained by various sophisticated methods. In this study, we investigated different blending techniques to reduce the viscosity of heavy crude oil. The blending of Middle East heavy crude oil with light crude oil or with one of its distillates, such as kerosene or diesel, as diluents was conducted over the entire range of weight fractions at 20 °C and atmospheric pressure. The heavy oil viscosity was decreased from 4000 to 500 cP, representing an 88% reduction. The experimental data were fitted with an empirical equation, and the results were satisfactory, with an average absolute value of the deviation of 0.0015 cP. A negative performance of the heavy oil with diluent mixtures was identified based on the asphaltene precipitation phenomenon, which was found to depend on not only the type and composition of the diluents used but also the concentration of each diluent. To obtain additional insight into asphaltene precipitation, qualitative studies were performed with scanning electron microscopy imaging and dynamic light scattering. Compared to the other diluents, kerosene distillates performed well with a specific heavy crude oil sample under our testing conditions. The addition of 0.5−2 wt % of a solvent mixture of polar protic hexane-1-ol and nonpolar toluene to the crude oil and diluent mixture was found to successfully delay the precipitation of asphaltene in these low-viscosity mixtures.
The application of nanotechnology in the oil industry has become a useful approach in oil production. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of nanofluids on the recovery of heavy crude oil compared with waterflooding. The nanofluids are prepared by the addition of pure and mixed nanoparticles-silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, nickel oxide, and titanium oxide-at different concentrations to the formation water. The prepared nanofluids were screened to determine the suitable type for the heavy oil and rock samples subjected to the study. The effect of nanofluids on the interfacial tension and viscosity of emulsion were also investigated. Nanofluid-flooding tests were performed on a heavy-oil sample of 17.45 API by use of Berea sandstone core samples with average air permeability of 184 md, liquid permeability of 60 md, and porosity of 20%. After selection of the optimum type of nanofluid, additional tests were performed including effect on asphaltene precipitation by use of a flow-assurance system. Results from the experiments show that the aluminum oxide nanofluid at concentration of 0.05 wt% reduced the emulsion viscosity by 25%. The mixed nanofluid of silicon and aluminum oxides at 0.05 wt% has shown the highest incremental oil recovery among the other nanofluids. It is expected to be the best type of chemical flooding because of its performance in reservoir condition (high pressure, temperature, and water salinity) and its capability to oppose asphaltene precipitation.
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