A comprehensive review of nanoparticles applications in the oil and gas industry

Abstract

With the increased attention toward nanotechnology and their innovative use for different industries including but not limited to food, biomedical, electronics, materials, etc, the application of nanotechnology or nanoparticles in the oil and gas industry is a subject undergoing intense study by major oil companies, which is reflected through the huge amount of funds invested on the research and development, with respect to the nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has been recently investigated extensively for different applications in the oil and gas industry such as drilling fluids and enhanced oil recovery in addition to other applications including cementing and well stimulation. In this paper, comprehensive literature was conducted to review the different applications of nanotechnology in the oil and gas industry. A summary of all nanoparticles used along with a detailed analysis of their performance in improving the targeted parameters is comprehensively presented. The main objective of this review was to provide a comprehensive summary of the different successful applications of nanotechnology and its associated challenges, which could be very helpful for future researches and applications.

New Nanohybrid Based on Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide and Silica Nanoparticles: Morphological, Structural and Thermal Properties

“…Nanotechnology in the upstream oil and gas industry has been used to improve the performance of fracturing fluids, improve cement properties, reduce the loss of drilling fluids and enhance wellbore stability, prevent scale deposition, and improve oil recovery. Boul & Ajayan (2020) [16] and Alsaba et al (2020) [17] present a detailed description of 2 of 15 these applications. In the downstream process, the applications include the use of nano-catalysts for refining and petrochemical processes and nano-membranes for enhanced gas separation [6].…”

Morphological and Structural Properties of Amino-Functionalized Fumed Nanosilica and Its Comparison with Nanoparticles Obtained by Modified Stöber Method

“…The content of the -OH groups on the NPs surface (A200, A200A, and nSiO 2 ) was quantified by potentiometric titration and calculated using Equation (2). The content of -OH groups calculated was 0.07 mM/g, 1.90 mM/g, and 2.3 mM/g for A200, A200A, and nSiO 2 NPs, respectively.…”

“…Research in nanotechnology over the past few years has resulted in different potential application areas for nanoparticles (NPs) [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. The surface functionalization of NPs is often a precondition for applications where the interactions between components affect the stability of NPs or colloids [ 7 , 8 ].…”

High Salinity and High Temperature Stable Colloidal Silica Nanoparticles with Wettability Alteration Ability for EOR Applications

“…In recent years, nanotechnology is gaining increasing attention in oil and gas industries. Many research articles have provided a comprehensive overview on potential applications of nanotechnology in this area [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. For EOR applications, at laboratory scale, nanoparticles were studied as performance improvers for polymer [ 10 , 11 ] and surfactant [ 12 , 13 ] flooding processes, wettability modifiers [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], emulsion stabilizers [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], etc.…”