Nanoparticle-Assisted Water-Flooding in Berea Sandstones

Hu, Zhongliang; Azmi, Siddeequah M.; Raza, Ghulam; Glover, Paul; Wen, Dongsheng

doi:10.1021/acs.energyfuels.6b00051

Cited by 94 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…1c). Increases in recovery of up to 20% over standard water-flooding have been observed, comparable with other modern IOR methods1623. The problem is that improved recovery is not observed in all cases1620 (e.g., Fig.…”

supporting

confidence: 63%

Zeta potential in oil-water-carbonate systems and its impact on oil recovery during controlled salinity water-flooding

Jackson

Al-Mahrouqi

Vinogradov

2016

Sci Rep

235

193

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Laboratory experiments and field trials have shown that oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs can be increased by modifying the brine composition injected during recovery in a process termed controlled salinity water-flooding (CSW). However, CSW remains poorly understood and there is no method to predict the optimum CSW composition. This work demonstrates for the first time that improved oil recovery (IOR) during CSW is strongly correlated to changes in zeta potential at both the mineral-water and oil-water interfaces. We report experiments in which IOR during CSW occurs only when the change in brine composition induces a repulsive electrostatic force between the oil-brine and mineral-brine interfaces. The polarity of the zeta potential at both interfaces must be determined when designing the optimum CSW composition. A new experimental method is presented that allows this. Results also show for the first time that the zeta potential at the oil-water interface may be positive at conditions relevant to carbonate reservoirs. A key challenge for any model of CSW is to explain why IOR is not always observed. Here we suggest that failures using the conventional (dilution) approach to CSW may have been caused by a positively charged oil-water interface that had not been identified.

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supporting

confidence: 63%

Zeta potential in oil-water-carbonate systems and its impact on oil recovery during controlled salinity water-flooding

Jackson

Al-Mahrouqi

Vinogradov

2016

Sci Rep

235

193

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This can be achieved through the reduction of interfacial tension (IFT) between the reservoir fluids. The by-passed oil or the oil located in unswept areas of the reservoir can be mobilized by pore plugging and flow diversion of injectants [4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These properties enhance the mobility and surface activity of NPs, particularly at high temperature, making them suitable to modify fluid-rock properties and increase oil recovery [8,9]. Furthermore, NPs can easily travel through and reach untouched zones of a reservoir with no severe impact to the rock permeability [1,7,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymer-functionalized silica nanoparticles for improving water flood sweep efficiency in Berea sandstones

2020

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Extraction of oil trapped after primary and secondary oil production stages still poses many challenges in the oil industry. Therefore, innovative enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies are required to run the production more economically. Recent advances suggest renewed application of surfacefunctionalized nanoparticles (NPs) for oil recovery due to improved stability and solubility, stabilization of emulsions, and low retention on porous media. The improved surface properties make the NPs more appropriate to improve microscopic sweep efficiency of water flood compared to bare nanoparticles, especially in challenging reservoirs. However, the EOR mechanisms of NPs are not well understood. This work evaluates the effect of four types of polymer-functionalized silica NPs as additives to the injection water for EOR. The NPs were examined as tertiary recovery agents in water-wet Berea sandstone rocks at 60 °C. The NPs were diluted to 0.1 wt. % in seawater before injection. Crude oil was obtained from North Sea field. The transport of NPs though porous media, as well as nanoparticles interactions with the rock system, were investigated to reveal possible EOR mechanisms. The experimental results showed that functionalized-silica NPs can effectively increase oil recovery in water-flooded reservoirs. The incremental oil recovery was up to 14% of original oil in place (OOIP). Displacement studies suggested that oil recovery was affected by both interfacial tension reduction and wettability modification, however, the microscopic flow diversion due to pore plugging (log-jamming) and the formation of nanoparticle-stabilized emulsions were likely the relevant explanations for the mobilization of residual oil.

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“…Altering the IFT at the oil-aqueous interface in a reservoir is necessary for generating the mobility and recovery of both the oil that is trapped within the small pores of the geologic formations and the residual oil that remains within the pores after the secondary recovery phase Bagherzadeh 2013, 2015;Joonaki and Ghanaatian 2014;Yuan et al 2015;Hu et al 2016a;Pu et al 2016). The wettability of an oil reservoir is dependent on the conditions that exist at the pore interfaces, conditions which govern the stability and movement of the interfaces and the resulting oil migration.…”

Section: Raspberry-like Morphology Of Sio 2 Nanoparticlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While most crude oil reservoirs are preferably oil-wet, the sweep efficiency associated with water flooding can be limiting which leads to difficulty in recovering crude oil during the secondary phase. Reports show that only 20-40% of crude oil is recovered with the primary and secondary recovery processes (Park et al 2015;Hu et al 2016a), indicating that more than half of the oil remains trapped in the reservoir. Capillary forces limit the mobility of oil in the reservoir during the primary and secondary recovery processes (Wu et al 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of silica-based nanostructures with raspberry-like morphology and surfactant on the interfacial behavior of light, medium, and heavy crude oils at oil-aqueous interfaces

Bai

Korte

et al. 2017

Appl Nanosci

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Any efficient exploitation of new petroleum reservoirs necessitates developing methods to mobilize the crude oils from such reservoirs. Here silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO 2 NPs) were used to improve the efficiency of the chemical-enhanced oil recovery process that uses surfactant flooding. Specifically, SiO 2 NPs (i.e., 0, 0.001, 0.005, 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 wt%) and Tween Ò 20, a nonionic surfactant, at 0, 0.5, and 2 critical micelle concentration (CMC) were varied to determine their effect on the stability of nanofluids and the interfacial tension (IFT) at the oil-aqueous interface for 5 wt% brine-surfactantSiO 2 nanofluid-oil systems for West Texas Intermediate light crude oil, Prudhoe Bay medium crude oil, and Lloydminster heavy crude oil. Our study demonstrates that SiO 2 NPs may either decrease, increase the IFT of the brinesurfactant-oil systems, or exhibit no effects at all. For the brine-surfactant-oil systems, the constituents of the oil and aqueous substances affected the IFT behavior, with the nanoparticles causing a contrast in IFT trends according to the type of crude oil. For the light oil system (0.5 and 2 CMC Tween threshold concentration resulted in a decrease in IFT, and concentrations above this threshold resulted in an increase in IFT. The IFT decreased until the NP concentration reached a threshold concentration where synergetic effects between nonionic surfactants and SiO 2 NPs are the opposite and result in antagonistic effects. Adsorption of both SiO 2 NPs and surfactants at an interface caused a synergistic effect and an increased reduction in IFT. The effectiveness of the brine-surfactant-SiO 2 nanofluids in decreasing the IFT between the oil-aqueous phase for the three tested crude oils were ranked as follows: (1) Prudhoe Bay [ (2) Lloydminster [ and (3) West Texas Intermediate. The level of asphaltenes and resins in these crude oil samples reflected these rankings. A decrease in the IFT also indicated the potential of the SiO 2 NPs to decrease capillary pressure and induce the movement and recovery of oil in original water-wet reservoirs. Conversely, an increase in IFT indicated the potential of SiO 2 NPs to increase capillary pressure and oil recovery in reservoirs subject to wettability reversal under water-wet conditions. Raspberrylike morphology particles were discovered in 5 wt% brinesurfactant-SiO 2 nanofluid-oil systems. The development of raspberry-like particles material with high surface area, high salt stability, and high capability of interfaces alteration and therefore wettability changes offers a wide range of applications in the fields of applied nanoscience, environmental engineering, and petroleum engineering.

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Nanoparticle-Assisted Water-Flooding in Berea Sandstones

Cited by 94 publications

References 75 publications

Zeta potential in oil-water-carbonate systems and its impact on oil recovery during controlled salinity water-flooding

Zeta potential in oil-water-carbonate systems and its impact on oil recovery during controlled salinity water-flooding

Polymer-functionalized silica nanoparticles for improving water flood sweep efficiency in Berea sandstones

Effects of silica-based nanostructures with raspberry-like morphology and surfactant on the interfacial behavior of light, medium, and heavy crude oils at oil-aqueous interfaces

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