Core–shell
micro-spheres (MS) with both negative and positive
charges in the core and only negative charges in the shell were developed
as adaptive plugging agents for in-depth conformance control for enhanced
oil recovery. The MS were designed to propagate deeply into the reservoir
due to the small particle size and electrostatic repulsion between
the MS and the sandstone at the initial stage of injection and form
aggregates by electrostatic attraction between the cores with mixed
charges when the shells degraded at a given time during transportation,
leading to an effective plugging of the highly permeable layers with
low residual oil saturation. The self-assembling and plugging behaviors
of the MS have been studied by Monte Carlo simulation. The results
show that charge density (D
charge), fraction
of positive charge (F
p), MS concentration,
temperature, and salinity are the key factors influencing the self-assembling
behaviors. The electrostatic interaction would become stronger with
the increase in D
charge when it is larger
than 0.5. The MS are more likely to form aggregates when F
p approaches 0.5. The higher the concentration of the
MS, the stronger the electrostatic interaction between the MS. In
addition, electrostatic interactions between the MS become stronger
with the increase in temperature and decrease in salinity. Simulation
results prove that the MS with mixed charges can effectively and adaptively
plug highly permeable layers with low residual oil saturation through
self-assembling by combination of electrostatic interactions along
with physical bridging, leading to the improvement of oil recovery.
Furthermore, block charge distribution will be helpful for the MS
with mixed charges to form larger aggregates than that of the random
mode to effectively plug the highly permeable layers.