Effect of in-situ emulsification of surfactant on the enhanced oil recovery in low-permeability reservoirs

Li, Xiaoxiao; Yue, Xiang-an; Zou, Jirui; Yan, Rongjie

doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2021.127991

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Low permeability reservoirs, generally characterized with the permeability less than 50 mD (In China), are difficult to generate economic volume of petroleum by conventional oil recovery technologies 1 , 2 . Low permeability reservoir primarily possesses the properties of small pores, fine throats, high filtration resistance, low oil productivity and low water absorbing capacity 3 , 4 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biosurfactant production by Bacillus subtilis SL and its potential for enhanced oil recovery in low permeability reservoirs

Xiu

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) technology is an environmental-friendly EOR method that utilizes the microorganisms and their metabolites to recover the crude oil from reservoirs. This study aims to research the potential application of strain SL in low permeability reservoirs. Strain SL is identified as Bacillus subtilis by molecular methods. Based on the mass spectrometry, the biosurfactant produced by strain SL is characterized as lipopeptide, and the molecular weight of surfactin is 1044, 1058, 1072, 1084 Da. Strain SL produces 1320 mg/L of biosurfactant with sucrose as the sole carbon source after 72 h. With the production of biosurfactant, the surface tension of cell-free broth considerably decreases to 25.65 ± 0.64 mN/m and the interfacial tension against crude oil reaches 0.95 ± 0.22 mN/m. The biosurfactant exhibits excellent emulsification with crude oil, kerosene, octane and hexadecane. In addition, the biosurfactant possesses splendid surface activity at pH 5.0–12.0 and NaCl concentration of 10.0% (w/v), even at high temperature of 120 °C. The fermentation solution of strain SL is applied in core flooding experiments under reservoir conditions and obtains additional 5.66% of crude oil. Hence, the presented strain has tremendous potential for enhancing the oil recovery from low-permeability reservoirs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biosurfactant production by Bacillus subtilis SL and its potential for enhanced oil recovery in low permeability reservoirs

Xiu

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…Low permeability and tight reservoirs play a significant role in the development of oil and gas reservoirs because of the huge reserves. 1 − 3 However, as a result of its small pores and throats, it is extremely difficult to develop compared with conventional reservoirs. 4 − 6 With the huge demand of economic and industrial development, expanding the scale of development and especially enhancing the development of low permeability and tight oil reservoirs is one of the urgent problems to be improved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Low permeability and tight reservoirs play a significant role in the development of oil and gas reservoirs because of the huge reserves. − However, as a result of its small pores and throats, it is extremely difficult to develop compared with conventional reservoirs. − With the huge demand of economic and industrial development, expanding the scale of development and especially enhancing the development of low permeability and tight oil reservoirs is one of the urgent problems to be improved. , Fractures are ubiquitous in the reservoirs, especially in tight formations, such as the BachHo oilfield in Vietnam, the Yanling oilfield in China, the Baobab oilfield in Chad, etc. − In tight reservoirs, it is difficult for water to be injected as a result of smaller pore and throat size, which is detrimental to efficient development. − Compared with water, gas is easier to inject into a tight formation, making it a more suitable solution than water in tight reservoirs. , Among gas flooding methods, N 2 is impressively insoluble in water and chemically stable compared with hydrocarbon gas and CO 2 . Additionally, N 2 has a small compressibility factor and is therefore not easily compressed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Research on Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods for Gas Injection of Fractured Reservoirs Based on Microfluidic Chips

Kang

Wang

et al. 2022

ACS Omega

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Gas injection is an effective method to enhance oil recovery of low-permeability and tight reservoirs, while the complicated fractures distributed in the formation have a noticeable effect on the performance of gas injection. In this study, three methods of gas injection were employed to conduct microfluidic experiments using micromodels simulating fractured reservoirs. The sweep efficiency and oil displacement efficiency of pores and throats, fractures, and the whole region were measured respectively to evaluate the oil displacement effects of the different gas injection methods. Moreover, the microscopic displacement process and the morphology of residual oil in porous media were analyzed to investigate the behavior of gas activated oil. The experimental results show that there are three stages of gas displacing oil: the oil in fractures was displaced first, then the oil in the pores and throats around the fracture was displaced, and finally the gas channeling occurred in fractures. Moreover, the sweep efficiency and oil displacement efficiency showed a tendency of increasing fast first and then reaching a steady state. Simultaneous injection of gas and water showed an optimal enhanced oil recovery effect among these three injection methods. Gas can invade deep throats, and those are difficult for water to sweep. However, the higher viscosity of water endowed it a smaller mobility than gas. And, the channeling in the two-phase mixing region was inhibited more obviously. The overall sweep efficiency and oil displacement efficiency increased about 18.4% and 13.4%, respectively.

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“…4−6 On the one hand, in situ emulsification between chemical agents and crude oil can disperse into small oil droplets to decrease oil saturation. 7,8 On the other hand, the emulsions migrating in the porous media can block pores by the Jiamin effect thereby improving the sweep efficiency of reservoir. 9−11 Therefore, it is of significance to prepare some unique surfactants with the features that are easy to emulsify with crude oil under microshear reservoir conditions and maintain an effective emulsion stability behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oil–water emulsification and emulsions are extensively applied in many technical fields, such as medicine, cosmetics, food, chemicals, petroleum industry, and so on. , As reported in the oil field, more than two-thirds of crude oil is produced in the emulsion form . Especially in the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) stage of crude oil production, emulsification has been demonstrated as an important mechanism to extend the lifetime of oil fields. − On the one hand, in situ emulsification between chemical agents and crude oil can disperse into small oil droplets to decrease oil saturation. , On the other hand, the emulsions migrating in the porous media can block pores by the Jiamin effect thereby improving the sweep efficiency of reservoir. − Therefore, it is of significance to prepare some unique surfactants with the features that are easy to emulsify with crude oil under microshear reservoir conditions and maintain an effective emulsion stability behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Method to Characterize Dynamic Emulsions Generation and Separation of Crude Oil–Water System

Yue

Zou

et al. 2022

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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The evaluation of the ease to generate emulsions and emulsions stability of oil−water system is essential for the investigation and application of chemical flooding technology for the enhanced oil recovery (EOR). However, the previous characterization methods have mainly focused on emulsion stability. To fill this gap, this study designed a novel instrument for visualizing the presence of emulsions and the separation of an oil−water system. Thereafter it also proposed quantitative methods: the emulsification index (EI) for characterizing the ease of surfactants to generate emulsions with crude oil and the demulsification index (DI) for describing emulsion stability. The results show that EI and DI can accurately characterize the dynamic characteristics of emulsions generation and demulsification, respectively. On the basis of the numerous test data composed by three crude oils and seven surfactants with different concentrations, the emulsifying capability and emulsion stability of different oil−water samples can be quantitatively determined. More importantly, these differences between various oil−water samples caused by surfactant concentration, surfactant types and crude oil property can also be accurately distinguished. Besides, the core flooding tests also provide support for the EI and DI and are reasonable parameters for characterization of the emulsification capability and emulsion stability of oil−water systems. Therefore, the overall investigations ultimately revealed that the parameters EI and DI can be used to determine ease of emulsion generation and separation of oil−water systems with an acceptable level of accuracy. The findings of this study provide a novel method for preparing effective chemical agents, which is useful for EOR fields with economic returns.

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Effect of in-situ emulsification of surfactant on the enhanced oil recovery in low-permeability reservoirs

Cited by 23 publications

References 34 publications

Biosurfactant production by Bacillus subtilis SL and its potential for enhanced oil recovery in low permeability reservoirs

Biosurfactant production by Bacillus subtilis SL and its potential for enhanced oil recovery in low permeability reservoirs

Experimental Research on Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods for Gas Injection of Fractured Reservoirs Based on Microfluidic Chips

A Novel Method to Characterize Dynamic Emulsions Generation and Separation of Crude Oil–Water System

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