Synthesis and Performance Study of Self-Degradable Gel Plugging Agents Suitable for Medium- and Low-Temperature Reservoirs

Abstract

Aiming at the problems of current similar hydrogel plugging agents, such as poor breaking performance, nonspontaneous degradation, and reservoir pollution which have been plaguing their application in temporary plugging operations, this study has synthesized a cross-linking agent for hydrogels with dimethylaminoethyl acrylate and dibromo-p-xylene as raw materials. With Fourier transform infrared, 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermogravimetric analyses as representations of the structure and thermal stability of the crosslinking agent, a set of self-degrading hydrogel systems has been developed with the cross-linking agent as the core so as to make evaluations on the temperature resistance, plugging performance, and core damage performance of the hydrogel and conduct a study on its gelation kinetics. The research results show that the cross-linking agent shows good thermal stability. When applied in the hydrogel system, the hydrogel has shown high temperature resistance, maintaining gel strength for 5−10 days at 50−90 °C, with viscosity after complete degradation lower than 10 mPa•s. The excellent bearing strength of the hydrogel system has led to a core damage rate below 5%. The study on gelation kinetics of the hydrogel system shows that, with the increase in the concentration of the cross-linking agent, the gelation time of the hydrogel system is shortened, with the reaction order between the cross-linker concentration and the gelation time at about 0.6 under the condition of 50−90 °C.