The static adsorption of CE, which is a highly ethoxylated nonionic surfactant, was studied on different minerals using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with an evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD). Of particular interest is the surfactant adsorption in the presence of CO because it can be used for foam flooding in enhanced oil recovery applications. The effects of the mineral type, impurities, salinity, and temperature were investigated. The adsorption of CE on pure calcite was as low as 0.01 mg/m but higher on dolomite depending on the silica and clay content in the mineral. The adsorption remained unchanged when the experiments were performed using a brine solution or 0.101 MPa (1 atm) CO, which indicates that electrostatic force is not the governing factor that drives the adsorption. The adsorption of CE on silica may be due to hydrogen bonding between the oxygen in the ethoxy groups of the surfactant and the hydroxyl groups on the mineral surface. Additionally, thermal decomposition of the surfactant was severe at 80 °C but can be inhibited by operating in a reducing environment. Under reducing conditions, adsorption of CE increased at higher temperatures.

In this paper, a novel fabrication process of stacked dielectric elastomer actuator (SDEA) is developed based on casting process and elastomeric electrode. The so-fabricated SDEA benefits the advantages of homogenous and reproducible properties as well as little performance degradation after one-year use. A coupling model of SDEA is established by taking into consideration of the elastomeric electrode and the calculated results agree with the experiments. Based on the model, we attain the method to optimize the SDEA’s parameters. Finally, the SDEA is used as an isolator in active vibration isolation system to verify the feasibility in dynamic application. And the experiment results show a great prospect for SDEA in such application.

Summary Oil recovery in heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs is typically inefficient because of the presence of high-permeability fracture networks and unfavorable capillary forces within the oil-wet matrix. Foam, as a mobility-control agent, has been proposed to mitigate the effect of reservoir heterogeneity by diverting injected fluids from the high-permeability fractured zones into the low-permeability unswept rock matrix, hence improving the sweep efficiency. This paper describes the use of a low-interfacial-tension (low-IFT) foaming formulation to improve oil recovery in highly heterogeneous/fractured oil-wet carbonate reservoirs. This formulation provides both mobility control and oil/water IFT reduction to overcome the unfavorable capillary forces preventing invading fluids from entering an oil-filled matrix. Thus, as expected, the combination of mobility control and low-IFT significantly improves oil recovery compared with either foam or surfactant flooding. A three-component surfactant formulation was tailored using phase-behavior tests with seawater and crude oil from a targeted reservoir. The optimized formulation simultaneously can generate IFT of 10−2 mN/m and strong foam in porous media when oil is present. Foam flooding was investigated in a representative fractured core system, in which a well-defined fracture was created by splitting the core lengthwise and precisely controlling the fracture aperture by applying a specific confining pressure. The foam-flooding experiments reveal that, in an oil-wet fractured Edward Brown dolomite, our low-IFT foaming formulation recovers approximately 72% original oil in place (OOIP), whereas waterflooding recovers only less than 2% OOIP; moreover, the residual oil saturation in the matrix was lowered by more than 20% compared with a foaming formulation lacking a low-IFT property. Coreflood results also indicate that the low-IFT foam diverts primarily the aqueous surfactant solution into the matrix because of (1) mobility reduction caused by foam in the fracture, (2) significantly lower capillary entry pressure for surfactant solution compared with gas, and (3) increasing the water relative permeability in the matrix by decreasing the residual oil. The selective diversion effect of this low-IFT foaming system effectively recovers the trapped oil, which cannot be recovered with single surfactant or high-IFT foaming formulations applied to highly heterogeneous or fractured reservoirs.

Oil recovery in many carbonate reservoirs is challenging due to unfavorable conditions such as oil-wet surface wettability, high reservoir heterogeneity and high brine salinity. We present the feasibility and injection strategy investigation of ultralow-interfacial-tension (ultralow-IFT) foam in a high temperature (above 80°C), ultra-high formation salinity (above 23% TDS) fractured carbonate reservoir. Because a salinity gradient is generated between injection sea water (4.2% TDS) and formation brine (23% TDS), a frontal-dilution map was created to simulate frontal displacement processes and thereafter used to optimize surfactant formulations. IFT measurements and bulk foam tests were also conducted to study the salinity gradient effect to ultralow-IFT foam performance. Ultralow-IFT foam injection strategies were investigated through a series of core flood experiments in both homogenous and fractured core systems with initial two-phase saturation. The representative fractured system included a well-defined fracture by splitting core sample lengthwise and controllable initial oil/brine saturation in the matrix by closing the fracture with a rubber sheet at high confining pressure. The surfactant formulation showed ultra-low IFT (10-2-10-3 mN/m magnitude) at the displacement front and good foamability at under-optimum conditions. Both ultralow-IFT and foamability properties were found to be sensitive to the salinity gradient. Ultralow-IFT foam flooding achieved over 60% incremental oil recovery compared to water flooding in oil-wet fractured systems due to the selective diversion of ultralow-IFT foam. This effect resulted in crossflow near foam front, with surfactant solution (or weak foam) primarily diverted from the fracture into the matrix before the foam front, and oil/high-salinity brine flowed back to the fracture ahead of the front. The crossflow of oil/high-salinity brine from the matrix to the fracture was found to make it challenging for foam propagation in the fractured system by forming Winsor II condition near foam front and hence killing the existing foam. Results in this work demonstrated the feasibility of ultralow-IFT foam in high temperature, ultra-high salinity fractured carbonate reservoirs and investigated the injection strategy to enhance the low-IFT foam performance. The ultralow-IFT formulation helped mobilize the residual oil for better displacement efficiency. The selective diversion of foam makes it a good candidate as a mobility control agent in fractured system for better sweep efficiency.

Summary Oil recovery in many carbonate reservoirs is challenging because of unfavorable conditions, such as oil–wet surface wettability, high reservoir heterogeneity, and high brine salinity. We present the feasibility and injection–strategy investigation of ultralow–interfacial–tension (IFT) foam in a high–temperature (greater than 80°C), ultrahigh–formation–salinity [greater than 23% total dissolved solids (TDS)] fractured oil–wet carbonate reservoir. Because a salinity gradient is generated between injection seawater (SW) (4.2% TDS) and formation brine (FB) (23% TDS), a frontal–dilution map was created to simulate frontal–displacement processes and thereafter it was used to optimize surfactant formulations. IFT measurements and bulk–foam tests were also conducted to study the salinity–gradient effect on the performance of ultralow–IFT foam. Ultralow–IFT foam–injection strategies were investigated through a series of coreflood experiments in both homogeneous and fractured oil–wet core systems with initial oil/brine two–phase saturation. The representative fractured system included a well–defined fracture by splitting the core sample lengthwise. A controllable initial oil/brine saturation in the matrix can be achieved by closing the fracture with a rubber sheet at high confining pressure. The surfactant formulation achieved ultralow IFT (magnitude of 10−2 to 10−3 mN/m) with the crude oil at the displacement front and good foamability at underoptimal conditions. Both ultralow–IFT and foamability properties were found to be sensitive to the salinity gradient. Ultralow–IFT foam flooding achieved more than 50% incremental oil recovery compared with waterflooding in fractured oil–wet systems because of the selective diversion of ultralow–IFT foam. This effect resulted in a crossflow near the foam front, with surfactant solution (or weak foam) primarily diverted from the fracture into the matrix before the foam front, and oil/high–salinity brine flowing back to the fracture ahead of the front. The crossflow of oil/high–salinity brine from the matrix to the fracture was found to create challenges for foam propagation in the fractured system by forming Winsor II conditions near the foam front and hence killing the existing foam. It is important to note that Winsor II conditions should be avoided in the ultralow–IFT foam process to ensure good foam propagation and high oil–recovery efficiency. Results in this work contributed to demonstrating the technical feasibility of ultralow–IFT foam in high–temperature, ultrahigh–salinity fractured oil–wet carbonate reservoirs and investigated the injection strategy to enhance the low–IFT foam performance. The ultralow–IFT formulation helped to mobilize the residual oil for better displacement efficiency and reduce the unfavorable capillary entry pressure for better sweep efficiency. The selective diversion of foam makes it a good candidate for a mobility–control agent in a fractured system for better sweep efficiency.