A comparative study of the mechanism and performance of surfactant- and alkali-polymer flooding in heavy-oil recovery

Ding, Mingchen; Yuan, Fuqing; Zhao, Hailong; Li, Zongyang

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2020.115603

Cited by 50 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Moreover, the presence of the polymer reduces the consumption of the alkali compared to when using the alkali solution alone. Ding et al [ 107 ] performed a mechanistic study of alkali–polymer flood for a reservoir characterized by heavy oil. The alkali–polymer system formed water-in-oil emulsions and achieved ultralow IFT values.…”

Section: Binary Combination Of Polymers and Other Additives For Eormentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Polymers for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Review

et al. 2022

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Polymers play a significant role in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) due to their viscoelastic properties and macromolecular structure. Herein, the mechanisms of the application of polymeric materials for enhanced oil recovery are elucidated. Subsequently, the polymer types used for EOR, namely synthetic polymers and natural polymers (biopolymers), and their properties are discussed. Moreover, the numerous applications for EOR such as polymer flooding, polymer foam flooding, alkali–polymer flooding, surfactant–polymer flooding, alkali–surfactant–polymer flooding, and polymeric nanofluid flooding are appraised and evaluated. Most of the polymers exhibit pseudoplastic behavior in the presence of shear forces. The biopolymers exhibit better salt tolerance and thermal stability but are susceptible to plugging and biodegradation. As for associative synthetic polyacrylamide, several complexities are involved in unlocking its full potential. Hence, hydrolyzed polyacrylamide remains the most coveted polymer for field application of polymer floods. Finally, alkali–surfactant–polymer flooding shows good efficiency at pilot and field scales, while a recently devised polymeric nanofluid shows good potential for field application of polymer flooding for EOR.

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Section: Binary Combination Of Polymers and Other Additives For Eormentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Polymers for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Review

et al. 2022

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“…Thermal oil recovery is the main method of heavy oil production, which refers to the method of injecting heat from the ground to the stratum or generating heat underground to achieve underground crude oil extraction [ 114 , 115 , 116 ]. At present, thermal methods, such as steam huff and puff, steam flooding, are mainly used for heavy crude oil production.…”

Section: Application In the Upstream Oil And Gas Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of Graphene and Its Derivatives in the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry: A Systematic Review

Ke-jian

Tang

et al. 2020

Nanomaterials

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Graphene and its derivatives, with their unique two-dimensional structures and excellent physical and chemical properties, have been an international research hotspot both in the research community and industry. However, in application-oriented research in the oil and gas industry they have only drawn attention in the past several years. Their excellent optical, electrical, thermal and mechanical performance make them great candidates for use in oil and gas exploration, drilling, production, and transportation. Combined with the actual requirements for well working fluids, chemical enhanced oil recovery, heavy oil recovery, profile control and water shutoff, tracers, oily wastewater treatment, pipeline corrosion prevention treatment, and tools and apparatus, etc., this paper introduces the behavior in water and toxicity to organisms of graphene and its derivatives in detail, and comprehensively reviews the research progress of graphene materials in the upstream oil and gas industry. Based on this, suggestions were put forward for the future research. This work is useful to the in-depth mechanism research and application scope broadening research in the upstream oil and gas industry.

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“…Polymer flooding, as a chemical method, aims at increasing the swept area, by decreasing the mobility of the displacing fluid to that of the fluid which has been displaced, and this is an aspect where many related mechanisms in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) have received considerable attention. − The microscopic aspects of polymer flooding as an EOR technique, including the impact of polymer viscoelasticity, the deformation and flow properties of viscoelastic fluids, , and the distribution of residual oil using pore network modeling, have been analyzed. Related studies include the mobilization of light oil by alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP) flooding, using X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning, polymer flooding in heavy oil reservoirs, , the impact of polymer viscosity and pore geometry, and the simultaneous sorption and mechanical entrapment of polymer flow …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Statistical Evaluation of Micro Residual Oil after Polymer Flooding Based on X-ray Micro Computed-Tomography Scanning

et al. 2020

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Polymer flooding is an important tertiary recovery method. However, even after its application, more than 50% of the oil remains in the formation layers. It is thus important for efficient resource use that both residual oil distribution and the mechanisms associated with polymer flooding are better understood. In the work described in this paper, a series of in situ X-ray tomography experiments were carried out, and different displacement stages were imaged. Then, rock, water, oil, and polymer were identified in the imagery and quantified, while interchanges among the different types of residual oil, and their associated microscopic polymer displacement mechanisms, were discussed. We also studied the impact of permeability on polymer flooding efficiency, and our results showed that polymer flooding could mobilize residual oil that was not accessible via water flooding. Mechanistically, the polymer flood caused the big continuous residual oil clusters to split, dispersing them into smaller clusters. The polymer also changed fluid flow pathways, thus increasing sweep efficiency, while its viscoelasticity was helpful for recovering singlet and film residual types of oil. We found that the polymer could only drive oil locally, and that a large amount of residual oil remained in the middle of the core. We also noted that polymer flooding was more effective for higher permeability samples, which showed that, after polymer flooding, the recovery rate for the samples with permeabilities of 3989, 1543, and 814 millidarcys (mD) were enhanced by 10.13, 6.30, and 4.34%, respectively. Higher permeability samples remained as network-type and multiple-type residual oils after polymer flooding, while samples with lower permeability showed multiple-type and singlet-type residual oils. Thus, our results and conclusions showed that different enhanced oil recovery methods could be applied for further development.

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A comparative study of the mechanism and performance of surfactant- and alkali-polymer flooding in heavy-oil recovery

Cited by 50 publications

References 31 publications

Application of Polymers for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Review

Application of Polymers for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Review

Applications of Graphene and Its Derivatives in the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry: A Systematic Review

Quantitative Statistical Evaluation of Micro Residual Oil after Polymer Flooding Based on X-ray Micro Computed-Tomography Scanning

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