In
this study, a temporary plugging agent composed of two different
types of guest molecules for thermally induced phase change fracturing
was constructed for different shale formation temperature ranges.
This agent, which was constructed through the screening of the host,
guest, and solvent, is in a uniform solution state at room temperature.
The solution became cloudy with increasing temperature, and a stable
gel was formed when the respective gelling temperature was reached.
However, the gel turned into a solution again upon further heating.
The temporary plugging agent system developed in this paper could
realize the phase transition of “solution–gel–solution”
only by changing the temperature. Characterization and evaluation
of the basic performance of the temporary plugging agent show that
the components of this agent form a long fibrous gel through supramolecular
interactions, the constructed thermally induced phase change fracturing
system has good thermal stability, and the filter loss is small. These
findings indicate that the temporary plugging agent system for thermally
induced phase change fracturing could form an excellent temporary
plugging agent suitable for formations at 90–120 °C through
the unique temperature responsiveness of supramolecular gels. In addition,
the gel formation process was described by the host–guest structure
combined with SEM characterization. The results of physical simulation
experiments reveal that the temporary plugging agent has low viscosity,
good fluidity, and good injectability at room temperature. After being
injected into the formation, the temporary plugging agent could form
a gel with sufficient strength at the target formation temperature
to plug the fractures. After the formation was further heated, the
formed gel gradually broke and caused slight damage to the core. The
whole temporary plugging process does not require the addition of
an additional crosslinking agent and a gel breaker. This new type
of temporary plugging agent has a potential application value in shale
gas refracturing.
For water injection development in low-permeability reservoirs,
nanoscale SiO2-fluorinated acrylate polymer nanoemulsions
(SCFs) with good properties were prepared through core–shell
emulsion polymerization. The results show that nano-SiO2 particles are well dispersed, the average particle size of the SCFs
is 113 nm, and the synergy among fluoride chain segments is good and
effectively improves the utilization of fluorine atoms. SCFs form
a low-surface-energy nanoscale hydrophobic film on the rock surface,
which changes the original rock surface micro- or nanostructure, resulting
in a water contact angle of up to 120° at the core. At 60 °C,
the interfacial tension (IFT) between a 1500 mg/L SCF dispersion and
white mineral oil is 1.86 mN/m, decreasing by 95.67% relative to the
oil–water IFT at room temperature. The core flooding experiment
shows that the depressurization rate reaches 29.62% in the 1500 mg/L
SCF dispersion. Therefore, SCFs have broad application prospects in
processes that eliminate water lock, reduce injection pressure, and
increase injection volume.
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