Investigation of Foam Stability in Porous Media at Elevated Temperatures

Abstract

This paper describes a laboratory study of the factors controlling the formation and breakdown of foams in porous media at elevated temperatures. The degradation of a foam when gas injection was discontinued involved the gradual transformation of a foam with a noncondensable gas phase (gas foam) to a foam with steam as the gas phase (steam foam). The ability to prevent release of the noncondensable gas phase was strongly influenced by surfactant type and concentration. The formation of steam foams in the absence of noncondensable gas was a critical function of steam velocity and permeability. Surfactant concentration and chain length, salinity, and the presence of oil were important variables in determining mobility reduction of steam. Increased oil recovery from cores undergoing steam displacement was obtained when surfactant slugs were injected with and without noncondensable gas. The presence of a noncondensable gas led to the formation of a more effective and durable foam.

Percolation theory of creation and mobilization of foams in porous media

“…Ransohoff and Radke (1988) and Sayegh and Girard (1988) found that the minimum velocity for foam generation rises as beadpack permeability rises. Isaacs et al (1988), however, found that the minimum velocity for steam-foam generation in Berea sandstone scales roughly as the inverse of permeability. Friedmann et al (1988) briefly cite the experimental results presented in detail in this paper.…”

“…In these experiments lamellae were created by "leavebehind" (Ransohoff and Radke, 1988) during drainage of the pack. In other cases (Ali et al, 1985;Friedmann and Jensen, 1986;Isaacs et al, 1988;Sayegh and Girard, 1988;Friedmann et al, 1988) surfactant and gas were injected into a porous medium initially saturated with brine and gas; thus, no leavebehind lamellae were created. Ransohoff and Radke (1988) and Sayegh and Girard (1988) found that the minimum velocity for foam generation rises as beadpack permeability rises.…”

Stability and texture of CO 2 /N 2 foam in sandstone

“…This lead to a conclusion that the effect of increasing trapped gas saturation is not comparable to that of pore throat blocking. Isaacs et al (1988) investigated steam-foam stability in porous media at elevated temperatures using different surfactants mainly to observe the influence of these surfactants on heavy oil recovery. In this study, non-condensable gas foams were generated in a sand-pack by injection of hot water (or steam), gas (Nitrogen) and surfactant.…”

A Novel Model of Foam Flooding Considering Multi-Factors for Enhancing Oil Recovery

“…This indicates shear thinning of the foam, which has been experimentally confirmed by many researchers [24][25][26][27][28]. In order to characterize the relation between the resistance factor and permeability ( Fig.…”