Application of Emulsions and Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery and Well Stimulation

Mohyaldinn, Mysara Eissa; Hassan, Anas M.; Ayoub, Mohammed Abdalla

doi:10.5772/intechopen.84538

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Therefore, the concept of VES-fluid as thickening agent for the fracturing fluid has been introduced by Schlumberger in 1997 [27][28][29]. The VES-fluid had attracted attention due to the viscoelastic behaviour and the nature of the non-residue(s) generated after gel breaking [29][30][31]. The sand suspension ability of Visco-elastic Surfactant (VES) fluid depends on the elasticity instead of the viscosity [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation and Performance Evaluation of Modified Viscoelastic Surfactant (VES) as a New Thickening Fracturing Fluid

et al. 2020

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In hydraulic fracturing, fracturing fluids are used to create fractures in a hydrocarbon reservoir throughout transported proppant into the fractures. The application of many fields proves that conventional fracturing fluid has the disadvantages of residue(s), which causes serious clogging of the reservoir’s formations and, thus, leads to reduce the permeability in these hydrocarbon reservoirs. The development of clean (and cost-effective) fracturing fluid is a main driver of the hydraulic fracturing process. Presently, viscoelastic surfactant (VES)-fluid is one of the most widely used fracturing fluids in the hydraulic fracturing development of unconventional reservoirs, due to its non-residue(s) characteristics. However, conventional single-chain VES-fluid has a low temperature and shear resistance. In this study, two modified VES-fluid are developed as new thickening fracturing fluids, which consist of more single-chain coupled by hydrotropes (i.e., ionic organic salts) through non-covalent interaction. This new development is achieved by the formulation of mixing long chain cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) with organic acids, which are citric acid (CA) and maleic acid (MA) at a molar ratio of (3:1) and (2:1), respectively. As an innovative approach CTAB and CA are combined to obtain a solution (i.e., CTAB-based VES-fluid) with optimal properties for fracturing and this behaviour of the CTAB-based VES-fluid is experimentally corroborated. A rheometer was used to evaluate the visco-elasticity and shear rate & temperature resistance, while sand-carrying suspension capability was investigated by measuring the settling velocity of the transported proppant in the fluid. Moreover, the gel breaking capability was investigated by determining the viscosity of broken VES-fluid after mixing with ethanol, and the degree of core damage (i.e., permeability performance) caused by VES-fluid was evaluated while using core-flooding test. The experimental results show that, at pH-value ( 6.17 ), 30 (mM) VES-fluid (i.e., CTAB-CA) possesses the highest visco-elasticity as the apparent viscosity at zero shear-rate reached nearly to 10 6 (mPa·s). Moreover, the apparent viscosity of the 30 (mM) CTAB-CA VES-fluid remains 60 (mPa·s) at (90 ∘ C) and 170 (s − 1 ) after shearing for 2-h, indicating that CTAB-CA fluid has excellent temperature and shear resistance. Furthermore, excellent sand suspension and gel breaking ability of 30 (mM) CTAB-CA VES-fluid at 90 ( ∘ C) was shown; as the sand suspension velocity is 1.67 (mm/s) and complete gel breaking was achieved within 2 h after mixing with the ethanol at the ratio of 10:1. The core flooding experiments indicate that the core damage rate caused by the CTAB-CA VES-fluid is ( 7.99 % ), which indicate that it does not cause much damage. Based on the experimental results, it is expected that CTAB-CA VES-fluid under high-temperature will make the proposed new VES-fluid an attractive thickening fracturing fluid.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation and Performance Evaluation of Modified Viscoelastic Surfactant (VES) as a New Thickening Fracturing Fluid

et al. 2020

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“…The application of emulsion for conformance control is associated with the design of a suitable slug and injection scheme that is dependent on the properties of the emulsion and the distribution of the fluid and rock. Emulsions are characterised based on their stability, droplet size and rheological properties (Mohyaldinn et al 2019;Mandal et al 2010). Over the years, there have been several studies on the stability and characteristics of emulsions.…”

Section: Characterisation Of Emulsionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comprehensive review of the chemical-based conformance control methods in oil reservoirs

Sagbana

Abushaikha

2021

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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The production of excess water during oil recovery creates not only a major technical problem but also an environmental and cost impact. This increasing problem has forced oil companies to reconsider methods that promote an increase in oil recovery and a decrease in water production. Many techniques have been applied over the years to reduce water cut, with the application of chemicals being one of them. Chemicals such as polymer gels have been widely and successfully implemented in several oil fields for conformance control. In recent years, the application of foam and emulsions for enhanced oil recovery projects has been investigated and implemented in oil fields, but studies have shown that they can equally act as conformance control agents with very promising results. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of the application of polymer gel, foam and emulsion for conformance control. Various aspects of these chemical-based conformance control methods such as the mechanisms, properties, applications, experimental and numerical studies and the parameters that affect the successful field application of these methods have been discussed in this paper. Including the recent advances in chemical-based conformance control agents has also been highlighted in this paper.

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“…The surfactant-based viscoelastic (SBVE) fluids are deemed capable of eliminating these issues and emerging as an environmentally friendly green technique for fracturing. Since Schlumberger presented the concept of viscoelastic surfactants (VES) or SBVE fluid as a thickening agent for fracturing fluid in 1997 [ 26 , 27 , 28 ], the viscoelastic behavior of SBVE fluids and the no makeup of the residue after the gel breaks have made them an appealing approach in the oil and gas industry [ 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel ZnO Nanoparticles Enhanced Surfactant Based Viscoelastic Fluid Systems for Fracturing under High Temperature and High Shear Rate Conditions: Synthesis, Rheometric Analysis, and Fluid Model Derivation

et al. 2022

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Surfactant-based viscoelastic (SBVE) fluids are innovative nonpolymeric non-newtonian fluid compositions that have recently gained much attention from the oil industry. SBVE can replace traditional polymeric fracturing fluid composition by mitigating problems arising during and after hydraulic fracturing operations are performed. In this study, SBVE fluid systems which are entangled with worm-like micellar solutions of cationic surfactant: cetrimonium bromide or CTAB and counterion inorganic sodium nitrate salt are synthesized. The salt reagent concentration is optimized by comparing the rheological characteristics of different concentration fluids at 25 °C. The study aims to mitigate the primary issue concerning these SBVE fluids: significant drop in viscosity at high temperature and high shear rate (HTHS) conditions. Hence, the authors synthesized a modified viscoelastic fluid system using ZnO nanoparticle (NPs) additives with a hypothesis of getting fluids with improved rheology. The rheology of optimum fluids of both categories: with (0.6 M NaNO3 concentration fluid) and without (0.8 M NaNO3 concentration fluid) ZnO NPs additives were compared for a range of shear rates from 1 to 500 Sec−1 at different temperatures from 25 °C to 75 °C to visualize modifications in viscosity values after the addition of NPs additives. The rheology in terms of viscosity was higher for the fluid with 1% dispersed ZnO NPs additives at all temperatures for the entire range of shear rate values. Additionally, rheological correlation function models were derived for the synthesized fluids using statistical analysis methods. Subsequently, Herschel–Bulkley models were developed for optimum fluids depending on rheological correlation models. In the last section of the study, the pressure-drop estimation method is described using given group equations for laminar flow in a pipe depending on Herschel–Bulkley-model parameters have been identified for optimum fluids are consistency, flow index and yield stress values.

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Application of Emulsions and Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery and Well Stimulation

Cited by 17 publications

References 52 publications

Experimental Investigation and Performance Evaluation of Modified Viscoelastic Surfactant (VES) as a New Thickening Fracturing Fluid

Experimental Investigation and Performance Evaluation of Modified Viscoelastic Surfactant (VES) as a New Thickening Fracturing Fluid

A comprehensive review of the chemical-based conformance control methods in oil reservoirs

A Novel ZnO Nanoparticles Enhanced Surfactant Based Viscoelastic Fluid Systems for Fracturing under High Temperature and High Shear Rate Conditions: Synthesis, Rheometric Analysis, and Fluid Model Derivation

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