Emulsification of heavy crude oil in brine and its plugging performance in porous media

Yu, Long; Dong, Mingzhe; Ding, Boxin; Yuan, Yanguang

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2017.12.043

Cited by 78 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…These emulsions can improve water injection profile through the selective plugging process. This means that they can prevent water from passing through areas with lower moveable oil saturation and reduce water cut, while the oil recovery factor is increasing (Arastoo and Zohoorparvaz 2015;Bai et al 2000;Breston 1957;Moradi et al 2014;Yu et al 2018). In the 1970s, McAuliffe was the first who investigated in O/W emulsions flooding as an EOR method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They created an emulsion with a high percentage of water content and introduced it in one of the oil reservoirs in the North Sea to diminish water cut up to 30% in their oilfield study (Bai et al 2000). Furthermore, the other advantages of O/W of emulsion flooding are its accessibility and lower cost of transportation as well as its more in-depth coverage into the formation and so its undemanding injectivity (Hasan et al 2010;Kumar and Mahto 2016;Mcauliffe 1973a, b;Romero et al 1996;Yu et al 2018). Romero et al studied on the effect of fracture plugging of in situ O/W emulsions by injection of an optimum amount of water/oil ratio in sandpacks and observed a massive reduction of 90% in water relative permeability as well as injectivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An experimental investigation on enhancing water flooding performance using oil-in-water emulsions in an Iranian oil reservoir

Sadati

Sahraei

2019

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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Emulsions are extensively prevalent in the oil industry in both advantageous and disadvantageous ways. In the literature, conventional water flooding in high permeability oil reservoirs has confronted with water channeling and poor sweep efficiency. In this paper, the remedial application of O/W emulsions as an EOR method in improving water performance is discussed. To this purpose, a series of flooding experiments were carried out in one of the Iranian oil reservoirs in reservoir condition of 75 C and 2000 psi. Then, visual stability measurements were conducted to inspect the stability characterization of the emulsion. Sodium dodecyl sulfate was applied helping simple dispersion of the gasoil into the water phase, and emulsions with water percentage of 90, 80, 70 and 60 were developed to introduce into the porous media. It was found out from flooding experiments that emulsion injection after conventional water flooding can lead to additional oil recovery (up to 20%). Besides, the emulsion with 80% water cut was determined as the optimum emulsion for injection in this reservoir considering financial aspects. Moreover, results of the stability test revealed that the aqueous phase with one wt% surfactant or higher had formed emulsions which have been stable during a long period of 6 months.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An experimental investigation on enhancing water flooding performance using oil-in-water emulsions in an Iranian oil reservoir

Sadati

Sahraei

2019

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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“…It is believed that, as the heavy oil is very vicious, the poor sweep efficiency (caused by the consequent adverse water-oil mobility ratio) is the primary problem needing to be resolved by SP flooding instead of the conventional displacement efficiency (for light oil). 2,9,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] By chance, the emulsion mechanism bestows dual functions in enhancing sweep efficiency. First, it reduces the viscosity of the heavy oil (by forming an O/W emulsion), making it easier to flow from a deep reservoir to the producing wells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[10][11][12][13][14] However, the resulting high consumption of alkali and severe scaling problems 15 can restrict the application of alkaline chemical systems. 2,9,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] By chance, the emulsion mechanism bestows dual functions in enhancing sweep efficiency. In this case, chemical systems based on alkalis may become increasingly more important for the EOR of heavy oil, especially in the context of SP systems.…”

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confidence: 99%

Performance of a good‐emulsification‐oriented surfactant‐polymer system in emulsifying and recovering heavy oil

Wang

Ding

et al. 2019

Energy Science & Engineering

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Considering the significant importance of emulsification for heavy oil recovery, a good‐emulsification‐oriented (GEO) (rather than the conventional ultralow interfacial tension (IFT) oriented) surfactant‐polymer (SP) system was employed to remove heavy oil. Specifically, the emulsification behavior and viscosity‐reduction property of heavy oil in porous media were first studied by flood tests. Then, such a GEO SP was used to displace heavy oil for recovery measurement. It is found that first, as migration increases in porous media, the in situ emulsified oil droplets evolve into smaller and more uniform droplets (without coalescence), thus, exhibit self‐adjustment ability to match with, and plug, the pores. An increase in surfactant content and seepage velocity also makes the emulsion's particles smaller and more uniformly distributed. Second, such oil‐in‐water emulsification indeed helps to reduce heavy oil viscosity in porous media and there is an optimal surfactant content for such viscosity reduction: The lower the water cut, the greater the optimal surfactant content, the worse the viscosity‐reduction effect. Third, on its own, the GEO surfactant performs very poorly in recovering heavy oil and is even worse than the single polymer; therefore, such a surfactant should be jointly used with a polymer in an SP system instead of on its own, but an excessive surfactant content in the SP seems to hinder the recovery, while the large slug size tends to contribute significantly to an improved oil recovery.

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“…In the petroleum industry, heavy crude oils are often produced from reservoirs in the form of W/O or O/W emulsions, and they are transported in reservoir rocks with a wide range of permeabilities. Several models have been reported in the literature to describe flow mechanisms of emulsions through porous media [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water-In-Oil Emulsions through Porous Media and the Effect of Surfactants: Theoretical Approaches

et al. 2019

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The most complex components in heavy crude oils tend to form aggregates that constitute the dispersed phase in these fluids, showing the high viscosity values that characterize them. Water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions are affected by the presence and concentration of this phase in crude oil. In this paper, a theoretical study based on computational chemistry was carried out to determine the molecular interaction energies between paraffin-asphaltenes-water and four surfactant molecules to predict their effect in W/O emulsions and the theoretical influence on the pressure drop behavior for fluids that move through porous media. The mathematical model determined a typical behavior of the fluid when the parameters of the system are changed (pore size, particle size, dispersed phase fraction in the fluid, and stratified fluid) and the viscosity model determined that two of the surfactant molecules are suitable for applications in the destabilization of W/O emulsions. Therefore, an experimental study must be set to determine the feasibility of the methodology and mathematical model displayed in this work.

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Emulsification of heavy crude oil in brine and its plugging performance in porous media

Cited by 78 publications

References 42 publications

An experimental investigation on enhancing water flooding performance using oil-in-water emulsions in an Iranian oil reservoir

An experimental investigation on enhancing water flooding performance using oil-in-water emulsions in an Iranian oil reservoir

Performance of a good‐emulsification‐oriented surfactant‐polymer system in emulsifying and recovering heavy oil

Water-In-Oil Emulsions through Porous Media and the Effect of Surfactants: Theoretical Approaches

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