CuO/TiO₂/PAM as a Novel Introduced Hybrid Agent for Water—Oil Interfacial Tension and Wettability Optimization in Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery

Abstract

The main target of this research is the development of a novel nanocomposite consisting of copper­(II) and titanium oxide nanoparticles and polyacrylamide (PAM) polymer for use as a hybrid agent beside other chemical factors in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. The optimization of interfacial tension (IFT) and wettability alteration, the most important issues in improving oil recovery, orient both the selection of the aforementioned materials and the presentation of a hybrid agent in chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR). This work focuses on the development of a simple, economical, and ecofriendly method for green synthesis of the CuO/TiO2/PAM nanocomposite to create a nanofluid that alters the oil-wetting state of carbonate and sandstone reservoirs into a water-wetting state, as well as reduces the water–oil IFT simultaneously. A green Cassytha filiformis L. fruit extract was used to synthesize the nanocomposite. The product underwent characterization tests, including the use of field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and EDS Map, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis, to achieve better analytical characterization. Nanofluids at various concentrations ranging from 100–1500 ppm were formulated, and their stabilities were studied through zeta potential measurements. The results of zeta potential tests confirmed the stability of the developed nanocomposite in water-based solutions. The IFTs of the developed nanofluids and the crude oil of the Sarvestan oil field (a carbonate reservoir located in the south of Iran) were then measured. In addition, wettability alteration tests were conducted for both carbonate and sandstone rocks in order to observe all rock type dependency of mechanisms. The results showed that the novel synthesized nanocomposite reduced water–oil IFT by about 46% at the low concentration of 200 ppm. Optimization of wettability alteration is the main reason to use nanosized materials in a CEOR approach. Our investigation showed that, at the optimum nanofluid concentration of 200 ppm, a 90% wettability alteration (from 151° to 14.7°) in the water-wetting state of carbonate rocks is achieved. For sandstone rocks, the nanocomposite showed a 91% optimization of wettability alteration (from 135.25° to 11.75°) at higher concentrations, with a concentration of 1500 ppm being the optimum.

Synergistic Effect of Nanofluids and Surfactants on Heavy Oil Recovery and Oil-Wet Calcite Wettability

“…When SiO 2 , MgO, and TiO 2 nanoparticles were combined together, the contact angle of the oil-wet calcite surface decreased to 19.8°. Thus, hybrid nanofluids could effectively alter the oil-wet calcite surface wettability, due to the following reasons [ 41 , 43 ]: Firstly, different species of nanoparticles have different shapes and sizes. Compared to the single nanoparticles, the shape of the hybrid nanofluids became more compact and showed a uniform distribution when different nanoparticles were combined.…”

Nanomaterial-Based Drilling Fluids for Exploitation of Unconventional Reservoirs: A Review

“…Energies 2020, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 30 nano-silica polymer grafted polymer [61], ZnO polymer nanocomposite [43], TiO2/polymer nanocomposite [62], TiO2/clay nanocomposite [63], and several others [64]. Nanomaterials are widely used for different purposes, including enhanced oil recovery [65][66][67][68], wettability alteration [69][70][71][72], IFT reduction [73][74][75], surface adsorption [76], and CO2 storage applications [77][78][79][80][81]. They have a potential to augment rheological properties and shale inhibition of unconventional HPHT wells, but this has not been reported in a review work to date.…”

A novel approach for using silica nanoparticles in a proppant pack to fixate coal fines

“…The application of nanoparticles has proven to be beneficial in the upstream oil and gas industry (Yang et al 2015). Several applications like water flood displacement (Yuan and Moghanloo 2018;Bahraminejad et al 2019;Najimi et al 2019), fines fixation (Huang et al 2010b;Assef et al 2014;Yuan 2017;Zheng et al 2018), and enhanced oil recovery (Yousefvand and Jafari 2015;Bera and Belhaj 2016;Yuan and Wood 2018;Asl et al 2020) have been studied and experimented upon in this capacity. The use of nanoparticles to control fines release and fix them at or near the source of their origin has been studied comprehensively in both sandstones (Kia et al 1987;Mohan and Fogler 1997;Rozo et al 2007;Zeinijahromi et al 2012;Bin et al 2016;Hasannejada et al 2017) and carbonates Al-Anssari et al 2016;Al-Anssari et al 2017b;Al-Anssari et al 2018).…”