The effect of nanoparticles on wettability alteration for enhanced oil recovery: micromodel experimental studies and CFD simulation

Abstract

The applications of nanotechnology in oilfields have attracted the attention of researchers to nanofluid injection as a novel approach for enhanced oil recovery. To better understand the prevailing mechanisms in such new displacement scenarios, micromodel experiments provide powerful tools to visually observe the way that nanoparticles may mobilize the trapped oil. In this work, the effect of silicon oxide nanoparticles on the alteration of wettability of glass micromodels was investigated in both experimental and numerical simulation approaches. The displacement experiments were performed on the original water-wet and imposed oil-wet (after aging in stearic acid/n-heptane solution) glass micromodels. The results of injection of nanofluids into the oil-saturated micromodels were then compared with those of the water injection scenarios. The flooding scenarios in the micromodels were also simulated numerically with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. A good agreement between the experimental and simulation results was observed. An increase of 9% and 13% in the oil recovery was obtained by nanofluid flooding in experimental tests and CFD calculations, respectively.

Nanotechnology in Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…In addition, silica NPs are a suitable choice for changing wettability in polymer flooding, as well as causing increased sweep efficiency and heavy oil recovery. However, the experimental results indicated that other NPs have greater wettability alteration ability and IFT in the case of light oil (Figure 8) [98]. Other research shows that some hybrids such as silica-multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) have excellent ability to change the wettability and improve the rheological properties of injected fluids in reservoirs.…”

“…Processes 2020, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 12 of 19 has great potential to change the surface wettability during surfactant flooding and create a waterwet surface [95][96][97]. Silica NPs reduce trapped oil in throats and pores and increase heavy oil recovery from reservoirs [98]. In addition, silica NPs are a suitable choice for changing wettability in polymer flooding, as well as causing increased sweep efficiency and heavy oil recovery.…”

Pore-scale experimental investigation of oil recovery enhancement in oil-wet carbonates using carbonaceous nanofluids

“…While they often exhibit an insignificant impact on IFT, NPs can alter the wettability of mineral surfaces and hence decrease the capillary forces responsible for trapping oil inside the pores 16 , 17 . The mechanism of wettability alteration may be triggered by nanoparticle adsorption on the rock or their ability to displace oil from mineral surfaces due to the structural disjoining pressure 18 – 21 .…”

Probing surface interactions of underwater oleophobic polyelectrolyte multilayers

“…The wettability of solid surface has long been the spotlight of scientific research due to its substantial application in lubrication, waterproofing, antifouling, self-cleaning, and oil/water separation, in relation to industrial engineering applications such as in agricultural pesticide, electric power transmission, detergents, petroleum production, material modification, and biomedicine (Zheng et al 2010;Guo et al 2012;Song et al 2019;Rostami et al 2019;Ehsan et al 2019;Luo et al 2016;Sudha et al 2019;Ahmadi et al 2020). The fundamental theory of wetting is properly expressed by Young's equation (Young 1805), which describes the spontaneous wetting mechanism of a solid surface.…”