Application of Nanoparticles in Foam Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery and Foam Stability in Carbonate Reservoirs

Bello, Ayomikun; Ivanova, Anastasia A.

doi:10.3997/2214-4609.202210009

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…When compared to surfactants, the efficiency of nanoparticles in enhancing oil recovery has been linked to their buildup at the gas-liquid interface of foams, which directly enhances stability by minimising liquid-gas contact and by preventing liquid drainage and gas diffusion [19,21,22]. Furthermore, because of their small size (<100 nm), they are less prone to adsorption on rock surfaces and may be efficiently carried through rock pore spaces during the oil displacement process without being confined in the porous medium [23][24][25][26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experimental Study of High-Pressure Microscopy and Enhanced Oil Recovery with Nanoparticle-Stabilised Foams in Carbonate Oil Reservoir

Bello,

Ivanova,

Rodionov

et al. 2023

Energies

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Foams have been successfully implemented to overcome the challenges associated with gas-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) over time. Generally, the foam helps to increase the viscosity of the injected gas, which in turn improves the effectiveness of EOR. However, this technology has rarely been applied in the oilfield due to technological and economical limitations. It is widely considered that nanoparticles may be added to foam to enhance its performance in harsh reservoir conditions to overcome some of these limitations. In this study, we employed high-pressure microscopy (HPM) as an advanced technique to examine the stability of N2 and CO2 foams at reservoir conditions, both with and without nanoparticles. The experiments were conducted under vapour and supercritical conditions. Our results indicated that foams produced at 80% quality were more stable than foams produced at 50% quality because the bubble size was significantly smaller and the bubble count was higher. Additionally, foams under supercritical conditions (sc) exhibited greater stability than foams under vapour conditions. This is because at supercritical conditions, the high density of gases helps to strengthen the foam lamella by enhancing the intermolecular contacts between the gas and the hydrophobic part of the liquid phase. Furthermore, core flooding studies were performed to investigate their effect on oil displacement and mobility control in both real and artificial core samples. Rather than focusing on precise quantitative results, our objective was to assess the effect of foams on oil recovery qualitatively. The results indicated that foam injection could significantly increase displacement efficiency, as foam injection raised total displacement efficiency from an initial 48.9% to 89.7% in the artificial core sample. Similarly, in the real core model, CO2 foam injection was implemented as a tertiary recovery method, and a recovery factor of 28.91% was obtained. These findings highlight the potential benefits of foams for EOR purposes and their ability to mitigate early gas breakthrough, which was observed after injecting approximately 0.14 PV during scCO2 injection.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experimental Study of High-Pressure Microscopy and Enhanced Oil Recovery with Nanoparticle-Stabilised Foams in Carbonate Oil Reservoir

Bello,

Ivanova,

Rodionov

et al. 2023

Energies

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“…Foam shows higher mobility reduction in the media with higher permeability and can efficiently direct fluid flow to the low permeable zones. 1,2 Nevertheless, only a number of laboratory and a handful of successful field pilot tests can be found in the literature, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and this indicates that the principal mechanisms of foam flow in the reservoir conditions need further investigation. Generally, experimental studies can be carried out at two scales: the core scale and the pore scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐pressure high‐temperature fluid displacement by foam injection within a multiblock matrix‐fracture system

Fathollahi,

Khosravi,

Rostami

et al. 2023

Asia-Pacific J Chem Eng

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Foam injection has been suggested and demonstrated as a potential gas‐based solution for enhancing oil recovery from underground reservoirs. While the pore‐scale behavior of foam has been investigated for many years, most of those studies were done at room temperature and pressure. A high‐pressure high‐temperature (HPHT) cell was constructed to relax this contributing simplification and evaluate foam behavior under reservoir conditions. The performance of foam injection into a fractured reservoir was investigated experimentally at vertical and horizontal pathways utilizing a 2D microfluidic device. The results showed foam had a higher lamellae density in the fracture network and could direct fluids to the matrix. This was mainly attributed to the created pressure drop in the fractured media dictated by foam self‐tuning ability, which is a higher viscosity in areas with higher conductivity. Generating a viscous crossflow in horizontal tests leads to enhanced recovery relative to gas injection. But the presence of gravity in the vertical tests causes the drainage of the foam film and the segregation of the gas and surfactant solution due to gravity, which ultimately reduces the stability of the foam. Comparing the performance of gas and foam in the vertical injection scenario reveals that foam injection results in a considerably more enhanced oil recovery. The oleic phase had a detrimental impact on foam strength and reduced fluids diversion from fracture to matrix. The sizes of gas bubbles were also larger in the presence of the oleic phase.

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Numerical study of the mechanisms of nano-assisted foam flooding in porous media as an alternative to gas flooding

Bello,

Dorhjie,

Ivanova

et al. 2024

Heliyon

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Application of Nanoparticles in Foam Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery and Foam Stability in Carbonate Reservoirs

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

An Experimental Study of High-Pressure Microscopy and Enhanced Oil Recovery with Nanoparticle-Stabilised Foams in Carbonate Oil Reservoir

An Experimental Study of High-Pressure Microscopy and Enhanced Oil Recovery with Nanoparticle-Stabilised Foams in Carbonate Oil Reservoir

High‐pressure high‐temperature fluid displacement by foam injection within a multiblock matrix‐fracture system

Numerical study of the mechanisms of nano-assisted foam flooding in porous media as an alternative to gas flooding

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