Effect of wettability alteration on enhanced heavy oil recovery by alkaline flooding

Gong, Hongyu; Li, Yajun; Dong, Mingzhe; Ma, Shanzhou; Liu, Weirong

doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2015.09.042

Cited by 104 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 21 flow fingering by modifying the surface wettability of Hele-Shaw packed cells with glass beads within capillary flow regimes. 33 Similar findings have been uncovered in geological CO2 sequestration 28,29 or oil recovery 26,56 systems. On all the cited experimental works, there is one common pattern: capillary fingering is significantly reduced when the wettability is restricted (above 60º for the wetting phase).…”

Section: Acs Paragon Plus Environmentsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…16 For instance, the combined effect of capillary forces, viscous forces and wettability (impact of the contact angle) has not been elucidated until very recently with the aid of Hele-Shaw cell geometries. [23][24][25] These studies are part of numerous efforts to understand multiphase flows through porous media similar to microparticulate packedbeds in other areas of research: oil recovery 26,27 and geological carbon dioxide sequestration, 28,29 among others. 30 Interestingly, all these works show improvements when the wettability of the displacing fluid is restricted up to a certain value of contact angle.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Modeling Pore-Scale Two-Phase Flow: How to Avoid Gas-Channeling Phenomena in Micropacked-Bed Reactors via Catalyst Wettability Modification

Navarro-Brull

Gómez

2017

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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A model for the design of micropacked-bed reactors via correlations, capable of providing a reliable estimation of two-phase flow dynamics and mass-transfer coefficients, is lacking, especially when the particle size of the bed is around 100 μm. In this work, we present a validation of the use of the phase-field method for reproducing two-phase flow experiments found in the literature. This numerical simulation strategy sheds light on the impact of the micropacked-bed geometry and wettability on the formation of preferential gas channels.Counter-intuitively, to homogenize the two-phase flow hydrodynamics and reduce radial masstransfer limitations, solvent wettability of the support needs to be restricted -showing best performance when the contact angle ranges 60º and capillary forces are still dominant. The tuning of gas-liquid-solid interactions by surface wettability modification opens a new window of opportunity for the design and scale-up of micropacked-bed reactors.2

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Section: Acs Paragon Plus Environmentsupporting

confidence: 58%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Pore-Scale Two-Phase Flow: How to Avoid Gas-Channeling Phenomena in Micropacked-Bed Reactors via Catalyst Wettability Modification

Navarro-Brull

Gómez

2017

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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“…Theoretically, the use of the alkaline solution aims to form a W/O emulsion which decreases the mobility of the displacing fluids and enlarges the swept area [15]. The utilization of the combination of alkali and surfactant afterward could yield more progressive reduction on the IFT than the utilization of the single alkali solution.…”

Section: (A) Group-alkali Solution Is the First Chemical Slugmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their experimental works, they also determined a cost-effective EOR process when utilizing alkaline flooding for acidic heavy-oil reservoira; in particular, Na 2 CO 3 performed better than NaOH in terms of lowering the IFT value. Basically, the combination of alkali, surfactant, and polymer in appropriate concentrations helps to drastically improve the heavy oil production compared to the use of individual agents [15][16][17]. In the work of Luo et al, surfactant-polymer flooding has been demonstrated to be a favorable combination for a heavy-oil sample from Western Canada when the alkaline solution was prone to cause severe scaling near the wellbore region; they determined that it was difficult to form the O/W emulsion with a SP system owing to its high viscosity, thereby decreasing the oil recovery enhancement level [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

Van

Chon

2016

Energies

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Heavy-oil resources represent a large percentage of global oil and gas reserves, however, owing to the high viscosity, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are critical issues for extracting this type of crude oil from the reservoir. According to the survey data in Oil & Gas Journal, thermal methods are the most widely utilized in EOR projects in heavy oil fields in the US and Canada, and there are not many successful chemical flooding projects for heavy oil reported elsewhere in the world. However, thermal methods such as steam injection might be restricted in cases of thin formations, overlying permafrost, or reservoir depths over 4500 ft, for which chemical flooding becomes a better option for recovering crude oil. Moreover, owing to the considerable fluctuations in the oil price, chemical injection plans should be employed consistently in terms of either technical or economic viewpoints. The numerical studies in this work aim to clarify the predominant chemical injection schemes among the various combinations of chemical agents involving alkali (A), surfactant (S) and polymer (P) for specific heavy-oil reservoir conditions. The feasibilities of all potential injection sequences are evaluated in the pre-evaluation stage in order to select the most efficient injection scheme according to the variation in the oil price which is based on practical market values. Finally, optimization procedures in the post-evaluation stage are carried out for the most economic injection plan by an effective mathematic tool with the purpose of gaining highest Net Present Value (NPV) of the project. In technical terms, the numerical studies confirm the predominant performances of sequences in which alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) solution is injected after the first preflushing water whereby the recovery factor can be higher than 47%. In particular, the oil production performances are improved by injecting a buffering viscous fluid right after the first chemical slug rather than using a water slug in between. The results of the pre-evaluation show that two sequences of the ASP group have the highest NPV corresponding to the dissimilar applied oil prices. In the post-evaluation, the successful use of response surface methodology (RSM) in the estimation and optimization procedures with coefficients of determination R 2 greater than 0.97 shows that the project can possibly gain 4.47 $MM at a mean oil price of 46.5 $/bbl with the field scale of a quarter five-spot pattern. Further, with the novel assumption of normal distribution for the oil price variation, the chemical flooding sequence of concurrent alkali-surfactant-polymer injection with a buffering polymer solution is evaluated as the most feasible scheme owing to the achievement of the highest NPV at the highly possible oil price of 40-55 $/bbl compared to the other scheme.

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“…Alkali flooding is an EOR technique that utilizes an alkali (a basic compound, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal) to improve oil recovery factor. The method is distinct from other EOR methods on the basis that the chemicals that aid the oil recovery are generated in situ during the EOR process by saponification reaction [84]. Saponification reaction is defined as the reaction between an organic acid and caustic alkali to form soap indicated by the reaction in Eq.…”

Section: Alkali Floodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of chemical enhanced oil recovery: recent advances and prospects

et al. 2019

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Despite the progress made on renewable energy, oil and gas remains the world's primary energy source. Meanwhile, large amounts of oil deposits remain unrecovered after application of traditional oil recovery methods. Chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has been adjudged as an efficient oil recovery technique to recover bypassed oil and residual oil trapped in the reservoir. This EOR method relies on the injection of chemicals to boost oil recovery. In this overview, an up-to-date synopsis of chemical EOR with detailed explanation of the chemicals used, and the mechanism governing their oil recovery application have been discussed. Challenges encountered in the application of the various conventional chemical EOR methods were highlighted, and solutions to overcome the challenges were proffered. Besides, the recent trend of incorporating nanotechnology and their synergistic effects on conventional chemicals stability and efficiency for EOR were also explored and analysed. Finally, laboratory results and field projects were outlined. The review of experimental studies shows that porescale mechanisms of conventional chemical EOR is enhanced by incorporating nanotechnology, hence, resulted in higher efficiency. Moreover, the use of ionic liquid chemicals and novel alkaline-cosolvent-polymer technology shows good potentials. This overview presents an extensive information about chemical EOR applications for sustainable energy production.

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Effect of wettability alteration on enhanced heavy oil recovery by alkaline flooding

Cited by 104 publications

References 31 publications

Modeling Pore-Scale Two-Phase Flow: How to Avoid Gas-Channeling Phenomena in Micropacked-Bed Reactors via Catalyst Wettability Modification

Modeling Pore-Scale Two-Phase Flow: How to Avoid Gas-Channeling Phenomena in Micropacked-Bed Reactors via Catalyst Wettability Modification

Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

An overview of chemical enhanced oil recovery: recent advances and prospects

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