Relationship between wetting and capillary pressure in a crude oil/brine/rock system: From nano-scale to core-scale

Rücker, Maja; Bartels, W-B; Garfi, Gaetano; Shams, Mosayeb; Bultreys, Tom; Boone, MA; Pieterse, Sebastiaan G. J.; Maitland, GC; Krevor, Samuel; Cnudde, Veerle; Mahani, Hassan; Berg, Steffen; Georgiadis, Apostolos; Luckham, P.F.

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.086

Cited by 75 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…In many geo-and petro-chemical processes, biphasic oil-brine systems are subjected to drastic salinity alteration; for example, improving oil production by injecting sea water into the subsurface reservoirs [67]. Characteristics of the oil-saltwater interface have been traditionally investigated by focusing on the role of polar (functionalized) compounds of the crude oil [9,11,15,49], whereas the impact of aromatic and aliphatic species (major non-polar constituents of typical crude oils) has been largely neglected in former investigations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do ions contribute to brine-hydrophobic hydrocarbon Interfaces? An in silico study

Badizad

Koleini

Hartkamp

et al. 2020

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science

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Hypothesis: The saltwater-oil interface is of broad implication in geochemistry and petroleum disciplines. To date, the main focus has been on the surface contribution of polar, heavy compounds of crude oil, widely neglecting the role of non-polar hydrocarbons. However, non-polar compounds are expected to contribute to characteristics of oil-brine interfaces. Methodology: Utilizing molecular dynamics simulation, we aim to characterize ion behavior adjacent to hydrophobic organic phases. Concerning natural environments, NaCl, CaCl 2 and Na 2 SO 4 electrolytes at low (5 wt%) and high (15 wt%) concentrations were brought in contact with heptane and/or toluene which account for aliphatic and aromatic constituents of typical crude oils, respectively. The reproduced experimental data for interfacial tension, brines density and ions' diffusivities adequately verify our molecular calculations. Findings: Ions accumulate nearby the intrinsically charge-neutral oil surfaces. A disparate surfacefavoring propensity of ions causes the interfacial region to resemble an electrical layer and impose an

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do ions contribute to brine-hydrophobic hydrocarbon Interfaces? An in silico study

Badizad

Koleini

Hartkamp

et al. 2020

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science

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“…Correspondingly, the investigated surfaces within the rock may be facets resulting from both the initial growth and mechanical or chemical modifications afterward. Due to the simple macroscopic pore structure, this rock type is often used for multiphase flow studies, such as CO 2 injection or oil recovery in conjunction with micro computed tomography (µCT) imaging [8,31,[70][71][72].…”

Section: Ketton Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies focused on flat areas within the rock as these were identified as original crystal facies unaffected by the sample preparation and because an effect of surface roughness on the investigated molecular interactions between the functionalized tip and the surface could be excluded [30]. In more recent studies, AFM was also used to assess the impact of the surface structure on the fluid configuration and molecular interactions by scanning the original internal rock surface, thus avoiding invasive sample preparations [31,32]. These studies have demonstrated the impact of surface features in the range of 100 nm-10 µm but missed the range below, which is required to link the larger-scale wetting response with the underlying molecular interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surrogate Models for Studying the Wettability of Nanoscale Natural Rough Surfaces Using Molecular Dynamics

et al. 2020

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A molecular modeling methodology is presented to analyze the wetting behavior of natural surfaces exhibiting roughness at the nanoscale. Using atomic force microscopy, the surface topology of a Ketton carbonate is measured with a nanometer resolution, and a mapped model is constructed with the aid of coarse-grained beads. A surrogate model is presented in which surfaces are represented by two-dimensional sinusoidal functions defined by both an amplitude and a wavelength. The wetting of the reconstructed surface by a fluid, obtained through equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, is compared to that observed by the different realizations of the surrogate model. A least-squares fitting method is implemented to identify the apparent static contact angle, and the droplet curvature, relative to the effective plane of the solid surface. The apparent contact angle and curvature of the droplet are then used as wetting metrics. The nanoscale contact angle is seen to vary significantly with the surface roughness. In the particular case studied, a variation of over 65° is observed between the contact angle on a flat surface and on a highly spiked (Cassie–Baxter) limit. This work proposes a strategy for systematically studying the influence of nanoscale topography and, eventually, chemical heterogeneity on the wettability of surfaces.

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“…Given the above mechanisms of surface roughness affecting fluid behavior, however, effects of surface roughness on multiphase displacement are relatively less studied and understood, especially in the context of micromodel experiments. This is partly due to difficulties (a) in performing direct measurements of roughness, (b) in resolving surface roughness features with CT‐scanning, and (c) in controlling the implementation of surface roughness in micromodels (Kibbey, 2013; Mehmani et al., 2019b; Rücker et al., 2020). Consequently, our current understanding of the role played by surface roughness in pore models and the development of reliable numerical simulation methods is limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subpore‐Scale Trapping Mechanisms Following Imbibition: A Microfluidics Investigation of Surface Roughness Effects

Sun

Mehmani

Torres‐Verdín

2021

Water Resources Research

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Surface roughness is ubiquitous in subsurface formations due to weathering and diagenesis. Yet micromodel studies of porous media have not sufficiently addressed the impact of pore‐wall roughness on multiphase fluid displacement. We investigate the influence of pore‐wall roughness on capillary trapping by implementing surface roughness into glass micromodels and conducting imbibition experiments. Time‐lapse fluorescence microscopy, micromolding in capillaries, and scanning electron microscopy are used to examine flow behavior during spontaneous and forced imbibition experiments with capillary numbers between 10−6 and 10−4. It is found that surface roughness causes interface pinning and irregular displacement fronts within a single pore, promotes latent pore filling following imbibition, enhances snap‐offs, and contributes to interface relaxation. Furthermore, we verify a cooperative effect between corner flow and surface roughness that causes pore filling to occur at over 10 times the channel width ahead of the main bulk front. Consequently, a significant increase in trapped air saturation of up to 60% is observed, especially at lower capillary numbers and narrower pores. Effects of surface roughness also decrease the rate of spontaneous imbibition, which is slower than the prediction from Washburn's equation. Our results emphasize the importance of surface roughness in building conceptual models for capillary trapping when the ratio of surface roughness‐to‐pore size reaches a critical value of about 0.1. Above this critical threshold value, subpore‐scale trapping mechanisms contribute significantly to capillary trapping, which theoretical and numerical models should consider for accurate quantification of fluid‐transport processes.

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Relationship between wetting and capillary pressure in a crude oil/brine/rock system: From nano-scale to core-scale

Cited by 75 publications

References 91 publications

How do ions contribute to brine-hydrophobic hydrocarbon Interfaces? An in silico study

How do ions contribute to brine-hydrophobic hydrocarbon Interfaces? An in silico study

Surrogate Models for Studying the Wettability of Nanoscale Natural Rough Surfaces Using Molecular Dynamics

Subpore‐Scale Trapping Mechanisms Following Imbibition: A Microfluidics Investigation of Surface Roughness Effects

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