A Novel Nanodrag Reducer for Low Permeability Reservoir Water Flooding: Long-Chain Alkylamines Modified Graphene Oxide

Abstract

Chemical modification of graphene oxide (GO) by grafting hydrophobic chains on the surface has drawn much attention nowadays in the academic world, and it was suggested that modified GO could lead to new functionalized materials with specific structure and different properties. In this paper, modified GO (M-GO) were synthesized by chemically grafting alkylamines with varying chain lengths on the graphene oxide surface. Successful grafting of alkylamines was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Raman spectroscopy measurements. In addition, we investigated the properties of M-GO as nanodrag reducer in low permeability reservoir water flooding. Water contact angle (CA) measurements revealed that the hydrophobic nature of GO depended on the chain length of the grafted alkylamines. And flooding experiments showed that the hexadecylamine-and octadecylamine-modified GO had an ability to reduce water injection pressure and improve water-phase permeability of the low permeability reservoirs during water flooding. So the M-GO would have potential applications in oilfield exploitation.

Recent advances in the applications of graphene materials for the oil and gas industry

“…Chen et al investigated the effect of modified GO (M-GO) grafted with alkylamines of different chain lengths on EOR. 36 Hexadecylamine and octadecylamine modified GO reduced the injection pressure and improved the aqueous phase permeability of low permeability reservoirs during water flooding.…”

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

“…Chen et al found that increasing the length of the alkyl chain grafted on GO, increasing the surface roughness of the modified GO, and reducing the surface energy, could increase the contact angle of the surface of hydrophilic core. In addition, the hexadecylamine-and octadecylaminemodified GO have the ability to reduce the water injection pressure and increase the water injection capacity in low-permeability reservoirs (as shown in Figure 4), and can be used as nano-drag reduction agents in low-permeability reservoirs [90]. Khoramian et al studied the oil enhanced recovery capability of GO nanosheets from the perspective of their influence on the viscosity of water phase and emulsification performance.…”

Preparation and Performance Analysis of a Dimension-Controlled Nano-Drag-Reducing Agent for Low-Permeability Reservoirs

“…In recent years, with the reduction of conventional oil and gas resources, the development of low permeability reservoirs has become the focus of oilfield development. , The production costs caused by difficult water injection and high pressure under injection, such as production and operation costs and equipment maintenance costs, are the key problems to be solved. At present, nanomaterials are being developed rapidly and used in the development of oil and gas fields to solve many oil production problems that are difficult to develop in poor oil fields and low permeability reservoirs.…”