A Review on the Progress of Ion-Engineered Water Flooding

Kilybay, Alibi; Ghosh, Bisweswar; Thomas, Nithin Chacko

doi:10.1155/2017/7171957

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This injection technique is gaining attention based on the multiple research documented in the literature. LSW is also referred in the literature as Advanced Ion Management, Designer Water Flood, Engineered Water Flooding, LoSal™ and Smart Water Flood, among others (Al-Shalabi & Sepehrnoori, 2016) (Kilybay, Ghosh & Thomas, 2017). For simplicity and integrate different concepts and approaches, in this paper authors will use the term Adjusted Brine Chemistry Waterflooding or ABCW (Alvarado, Garcia-Olvera & Manrique, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of ionic composition in water: oil interactions in adjusted brine chemistry waterflooding: preliminary results

Maya¹,

Herrera²,

Orrego³

et al. 2018

Rev. fuentes reventón enrg.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Low salinity or adjusted brine composition waterflooding (LSW or ABCW) is considered a promising improved/enhanced oil recovery (IOR/EOR) method. Despite the large number of studies documented in the literature, there are contradictory results and a lack of consensus regarding the mechanisms that operate in this recovery process. The proposed fluid:rock and fluid:fluid mechanisms are still under discussion and investigation. However, the impact of oil geochemistry and its importance on the fluid:fluid interactions that can occur with brines during LSW or ABCW have been overlooked and studied in a lesser extent.The scope of the present study is to preliminary evaluate crude oil:brine interactions to validate the influence of its compositions. These interactions were evaluated at static conditions for a week and reservoir temperature (60°C) using two oil samples from different Colombian basins and brine solutions of different composition at a constant ionic strength (I = 0.086). Specifically, this investigation evaluated the effect of the type of cation (Na+ and Ca2+) and anion (Cl- and SO4=) on crude oil:brine interactions. The results of these experiments were compared with tests using distilled water (DW). Although a basic characterization of brines (i.e. pH, alkalinity and ionic composition) and oil (oil viscosity) was performed, the main objective of this study is the analysis of water-soluble organic compounds (WSOC) using Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). The results demonstrate that water:oil interactions are dependent on brine and crude oil compositions. The main changes observed in the aqueous phase were the increase in inorganic components (desalting effects) and organic compounds soluble in water. Only the system crude oil A and NaCl (5,000 ppm) showed the formation of a micro dispersion. Negative electrospray ionization (ESI (-)) FT-ICR MS data shows that WSOC’s identified in DW and Na2SO4 after the interaction with crude oil A belongs to similar classes but there is marked selectivity of species solubilized with different brines. The relative abundance of classes Ox, OxS and NOx (x > 2) decreases while Ox, OxS and NOx (x ≤ 2) increase their solubility in the presence of Na2SO4 compared to DW. The analysis of O2 and O3S classes using double bond equivalence (DBE) vs. carbon number (CN) contour plots shows that the isoabundance of water-soluble species are within the range of DBE £ 10 and CN £ 20 regardless the brine used in the experiments. Finally, the method of solvent extraction in silica columns used in this investigation for the analysis of WSOC using FT-ICR MS represents a powerful and new approach to study LSW and ABCW.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of ionic composition in water: oil interactions in adjusted brine chemistry waterflooding: preliminary results

Maya¹,

Herrera²,

Orrego³

et al. 2018

Rev. fuentes reventón enrg.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is reported that the carbonate formation surface is positively charged at pH values less than 8–9, , with the reason being the release of Ca 2+ to brine by the dissolution of calcium carbonate while consuming H + . This results in an increase in the pH value, which causes wettability alteration of the carbonate rock and, hence, an increase in oil recovery. − On the contrary, Al-Shalabi et al suggested electric double-layer expansion as the main contributor for increasing oil recovery in LSWF . The electric double layer (EDL) is a description of the distribution of ions in the aqueous neighborhood of the reservoir rock.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, a surface exposed to brine develops two charged layers around it. The inner layer (the stern layer) is either negatively or positively charged, but it is always strongly attached to the solid, whereas the second layer (the diffuse layer) contains positive and negative ions in motion. − During LSWF, the EDL expands as a result of the reduction in the salinity and the related drop in ionic strength. This expansion causes a reduction in the adsorption of oil droplets onto the formation wall and helps to strip oil from the surface, which is equivalent to rendering the rock wettability toward more water-wet (which increases oil recovery). , Rendering the carbonate surface toward water-wet is found to enhance the oil recovery significantly and would be favorable toward carbon geosequestration. , …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14−18 On the contrary, Al-Shalabi et al suggested electric double-layer expansion as the main contributor for increasing oil recovery in LSWF. 19 The electric double layer (EDL) is a description of the distribution of ions in the aqueous neighborhood of the reservoir rock. or positively charged, but it is always strongly attached to the solid, whereas the second layer (the diffuse layer) contains positive and negative ions in motion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Wettability Alteration during Low-Salinity Water Flooding

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Low-salinity water flooding (LSWF) for hydrocarbon recovery has attracted industrial attention, owing to its simplicity and economic feasibility. Although this topic has received numerous studies, mechanisms driving the low-salinity effect remain poorly understood. This study is aimed at investigating the direct effects of injecting lowsalinity brine (0.6 and 0.2 M NaCl) as the non-wetting fluid and Soltrol 130 as a synthetic wetting fluid on outcrop "Austin Chalk" rock samples. The petrophysical properties of rock samples were estimated by saturating the core samples with high-and low-salinity brine at laboratory conditions. Experiments were conducted for unsteady-state and steady-state flow for both imbibition and drainage processes. A shift to the right has been observed for the relative permeability curve of 0.2 M NaCl along with a drop in irreducible water saturation (S wi ) and in residual oil saturation (S or ). Furthermore, the results have shown a reduction in irreducible water saturation from 22.2 to 18.7% when using 0.2 M NaCl compared to 0.6 M NaCl. The current research demonstrates that ionic interactions among rock, oil, and brine compositions would alter the in situ wettability of the carbonate samples from oil-wet/mixed-wet to more water-wet conditions. A correlation is found among the double-layer expansion, ζ potential, and wettability alteration during LSWF. Moreover, improved oil recovery takes place during LSWF only when a repulsive electrostatic force between oil−brine and mineral−brine interfaces is induced by the change in brine composition. ζ potential of the carbonate is found to become more negative with the dilution of the brine. After the sample is aged with oil, the ζ potential changed, indicating an alteration in wettability.

show abstract

“…Also, the single-well chemical tracer test and a few field studies − were performed to evaluate the impact of MSW at larger scales. Several studies summarized the influencing parameters on the performance of MSW flooding in carbonates. − Parallel to the experimental investigations, analytical and numerical models are also developed for both core and field scales. ,− Although the underlying reactive transport equations are identical, these studies differ in the way they alter the transport properties of the oleic and aqueous phases because of the change of brine composition and its subsequent interaction with crude oil and rock surfaces. Al-shalabi et al modeled the two core flooding tests conducted by Yousef et al using the UTCHEM simulator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adsorption- and Diffusion-Controlled Wettability Change in Modified Salinity Water Flooding

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the modified salinity water (MSW) flooding, the injected water must first reach and interact with the residual oil attached on the pore surfaces through a thin formation water film to mobilize the oil and improve the oil recovery. This can cause a delay in the rock response to the injection of MSW, as observed in many core flooding tests. The physicochemical processes that control this response time occur at two different scales: the alteration of wettability at the film scale and the consequent mobilization of oil at the Darcy scale. We propose a new model that links the diffusion- and adsorption-controlled flow of ions in the thin film to the two-phase flow of oil and water at the Darcy scale through a wettability-modifier parameter. This parameter is defined based on the salinity change in the water film or the adsorption/desorption of ions on the water-film-covered rock and is used as an interpolating parameter for two sets of relative permeability curves for the initial state and the new state of the reservoir. We utilize the model to analyze several core flooding results to first explain the observed oil breakthrough delay and second find out how much of this delay is expected to happen in the reservoir scale. Our results suggest that sizes of residual oil droplets and the effective ionic diffusion in the thin water film, dictated by the electrostatic charge of the oil–brine and rock–brine interfaces, play significant roles in controlling the oil breakthrough time. In addition, our observations suggest that the observed delay is strongly controlled by a rather slow diffusion process in the water film, which is not scalable from the core to field scale.

show abstract

A Review on the Progress of Ion-Engineered Water Flooding

Cited by 16 publications

References 29 publications

Effect of ionic composition in water: oil interactions in adjusted brine chemistry waterflooding: preliminary results

Effect of ionic composition in water: oil interactions in adjusted brine chemistry waterflooding: preliminary results

Wettability Alteration during Low-Salinity Water Flooding

Adsorption- and Diffusion-Controlled Wettability Change in Modified Salinity Water Flooding

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About