Potential For Alkali-Surfactant Flooding In Heavy Oil Reservoirs Through Oil-in-Water Emulsification

Bryan, J.; Kantzas, Apostolos

doi:10.2118/2007-134

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…The second mechanism refers to emulsion droplets that become trapped in the pore throats and result in plugging off pre-formed flow channels that divert incoming fluids to unswept areas of the system and alter the sweep efficiency. Core flood data interpretation and associated low-field NMR testing indicate that entrapment through the formation of either O/W or W/O emulsions seems to be more effective than entrainment due to a decrease in the water cut and the introduction of a higher-pressure gradient in the system [12,13]. However, the response of this mechanism might be mistaken for other mechanisms of surface-active agents, such as the traditional understanding of surfactants as agents to sweep residual oil out of swept zones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A factor that has made it difficult to observe the performance of emulsification mechanisms is the type of model used for carrying out these flooding displacements. Most heavy oil recovery mechanisms observations in the literature have been made in linear cores or 1D systems which have limited available flow pathways [8,12,14]. For small cores or sand packs, it is possible for these limited previously flooded channels to be plugged off, and now access to new regions of the core will increase the pressure once again in the system, leading to an increase in oil production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visualization of Chemical Heavy Oil EOR Displacement Mechanisms in a 2D System

2021

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This study aims to develop a visual understanding of the macro-displacement mechanisms associated with heavy oil recovery by water and chemical flooding in a 2D system. The sweep efficiency improvements by water, surfactant, polymer, and surfactant-polymer (SP) were evaluated in a Hele-Shaw cell with no local pore-level trapping of fluids. The results demonstrated that displacement performance is highly correlated to the mobility ratio between the fluids. Surfactant and water reached similar oil recovery values at similar mobility ratios; however, they exhibited different flow patterns in the 2D system—reductions in IFT can lead to the formation of emulsions and alter flow pathways, but in the absence of porous media these do not lead to significant improvements in oil recovery. Polymer flooding displayed a more stable front and a higher reduction in viscous fingering. Oil recovery by SP was achieved mostly by polymer rather than due to the effect of the surfactant. The surfactant in the SP slug washed out residual oil in the swept zone without increasing the swept area. This shows the impact of the surfactant on reducing the oil saturation in water-swept zones, but the overall oil recovery was still controlled by the injection of polymer. This study provides insight into the fluid flow behavior in diverging flow paths, as opposed to linear core floods that have limited pathways. The visualization of bulk liquid interactions between different types of injection fluids and oil in the Hele-Shaw cell might assist in the screening process for new chemicals and aid in testing the production process.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization of Chemical Heavy Oil EOR Displacement Mechanisms in a 2D System

2021

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“…However, from the comparison between indoor research and on‐site results, the results were not satisfactory. Over the past decade, M. Dong and A. Kantzas of the University of Calgary in Canada have conducted extensive research on the chemical flooding of heavy oil due to the need for the development of the thin‐layer heavy oil reservoirs (Bryan and Kantzas, , , , ; Dong et al, ). However, their standpoints for designing the chemical‐flooding system were different from the traditional view.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Oleic Acid Amide Betaine Used in Surfactant‐Polymer Compound Flooding for Ordinary Heavy Oil

Ke-jian

Pei

et al. 2019

J Surfact & Detergents

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In view of the low recovery rate associated with water flooding, as well as the scaling problems caused by traditional alkali‐surfactant‐polymer flooding, the feasibility of using a betaine surfactant with high interfacial activity for chemical flooding of ordinary heavy oil was investigated. Aqueous solutions of oleic acid amide betaine (OAAB) with the mass concentration of 0.01% can reduce the oil–water interfacial tension to the ultralow level (10−3 mN m−1), making it suitable for chemical flooding. To solve the problem of high adsorption onto sandstone, static adsorption tests and dynamic adsorption tests were carried out. The results show that the weakly alkaline lignin can significantly reduce the adsorption quantity of OAAB by more than 40%, based on which, a compound‐flooding system of 0.1% partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) + 0.1% OAAB +0.75% lignin was constructed. Compared with water flooding, the ultimate rate was enhanced by 20.4%, resulting in a final recovery rate of 53.9%. The study of oil displacement mechanism shows that the excellent ability to reduce the oil–water interfacial tension of OAAB can emulsify heavy oil to small droplets easily, exhibiting better capacity in oil displacement efficiency. The polymer can increase the viscosity of the aqueous phase, reduce the mobility ratio of water to oil, weaken the fingering effect, and improve the sweep efficiency. Lignin can not only reduce the adsorption quantity of betaine surfactant, but also promote the adsorption of OAAB onto the oil–water interface, leading to enhance the emulsification performance of OAAB and maintain the oil displacement efficiency effectively. Therefore, the surfactant‐polymer flooding system based on the betaine surfactant can be developed into an economically and technically feasible flooding technology suitable for ordinary heavy oil reservoirs.

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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%

“…20,21 Furthermore, studies have suggested that O/W or W/O emulsions do indeed plug water-flooded channels, which results in improved volumetric sweeping of reservoirs. [22][23][24] McAuliffe 25,26 found that water flows into less permeable regions, leading to extended sweep volumes when an emulsion enters into the more permeable regions and plug them by the Jamin effect. Yu 27,28 found that a fine-emulsion system exhibits good plugging and sweep-volume-enlargement behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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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Potential For Alkali-Surfactant Flooding In Heavy Oil Reservoirs Through Oil-in-Water Emulsification

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

Visualization of Chemical Heavy Oil EOR Displacement Mechanisms in a 2D System

Visualization of Chemical Heavy Oil EOR Displacement Mechanisms in a 2D System

Research on Oleic Acid Amide Betaine Used in Surfactant‐Polymer Compound Flooding for Ordinary Heavy Oil

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

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