Mechanism governing nanoparticle flow behaviour in porous media: insight for enhanced oil recovery applications

Abstract

Nanotechnology has found its way to petroleum engineering, it is well-accepted path in the oil and gas industry to recover more oil trapped in the reservoir. But the addition of nanoparticles to a liquid can result in the simplest flow becoming complex. To understand the working mechanism, there is a need to study the flow behaviour of these particles. This review highlights the mechanism affecting the flow of nanoparticles in porous media as it relates to enhanced oil recovery. The discussion focuses on chemical-enhanced oil recovery, a review on laboratory experiment on wettability alteration, effect of interfacial tension and the stability of emulsion and foam is discussed. The flow behaviour of nanoparticles in porous media was discussed laying emphasis on the physical aspect of the flow, the microscopic rheological behaviour and the adsorption of the nanoparticles. It was observed that nanofluids exhibit Newtonian behaviour at low shear rate and non-Newtonian behaviour at high shear rate. Gravitational and capillary forces are responsible for the shift in wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. The dominant mechanisms of foam flow process were lamellae division and bubble to multiple bubble lamellae division. In a water-wet system, the dominant mechanism of flow process and residual oil mobilization are lamellae division and emulsification, respectively. Whereas in an oil-wet system, the generation of pre-spinning continuous gas foam was the dominant mechanism. The literature review on oil displacement test and field trials indicates that nanoparticles can recover additional oil. The challenges encountered have opened new frontier for research and are highlighted herein.

The effect of nanoparticles on reservoir wettability alteration: a critical review

“…The movement behaviour of nanoparticles in porous media has been investigated widely, focusing on the flow, rheological behaviour and adsorption of the nanoparticles on rocks. Oil displacement mechanisms by new nanoparticles are still not explained enough and need more investigation (Agi et al 2018); however, the EOR mechanisms of nanofluids are summarised as follows: disjoining pressure, pore channel plugging, increasing the viscosity of injection fluids, IFT reduction, wettability alteration, and preventing asphaltene precipitation (Jiang et al 2017;Ortega et al 2016;Tarek 2015). Figure 1 presents a schematic of the most common nanofluid EOR mechanisms.…”

Evaluating the potential of surface-modified silica nanoparticles using internal olefin sulfonate for enhanced oil recovery

“…Although nanoparticles have widely been studied for EOR applications, however, a smart nanofluid like silica nanoparticles coated with anionic surfactant could be an emerging class of material that is superior to conventional nanoparticles. Anionic surfactant-coated silica nanoparticles may force injected fluid to move through the smaller pores by occupying high permeable zones and make the permeability uniform throughout the medium (Agi et al 2018). It is known that the surfactant helps to improve the oil recovery by working at a microscopic level such that at the oil/water interface while nanoparticles being worked at a macroscopic level improves the overall displacement efficiency of the injected fluid (Emrani et al 2017;Farid Ibrahim and Nasr-el-Din 2018).…”

Plenty of Room at the Bottom: Nanotechnology as Solution to an Old Issue in Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…These have mostly been focused on the use of nanotechnology for drilling and completion [22,[38][39][40], reservoir imaging and characterization [38][39][40], numerical modeling of nanoparticles in porous media [22], downstream refining [39], and sensing and production operations (e.g., well stimulation) [22,[38][39][40]. However, to the best of our knowledge, a comprehensive review of all the possible applications of nanotechnology in EOR processes is still lacking, including an extensive analysis of the physical mechanisms involved and a description of laboratory-and field-scale applications [22,[39][40][41]. The purpose of this review is then to present the developments in this field, describing the theory and exposing the conclusions, advances, and points requiring further research.…”