ABSRACT:The use of nanoparticles (NP) to improve reservoir characterisation or to enhance oil recovery (EOR) has recently received intensive interest; however there are still many un-resolved questions. This work reports a systematic study of the effect of rutile TiO 2 nanoparticle-assisted brine flooding. Rutile ellipsoid TiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesised and stabilised by tri-sodium citrate dehydrate for brine flooding of water-wet Berea sandstone cores. Careful characterisation of the rock samples and nanomaterials before and after the flooding was conducted, and the relative contributions to the modified flooding results from the stabiliser and the nanoparticles of different concentrations were examined. The oil recovery performance was evaluated both at break-through (BT) point and at the end of flooding (~3.2 pore volumes). Nanoparticle migration behavior was also investigated in order to understand the potential mechanisms for oil recovery. The results showed that both nanoparticle transport rate and EOR effect were strongly dependent on the particle concentration. The oil recovery efficiency at the BT point was found to increase at low nanoparticle concentrations but decrease at higher values. A maximum 33% increase of the recovery factor was observed at the BT point for a TiO 2 concentration of 20 ppm, but higher nanoparticle concentrations usually had higher ultimate recovery factors. The presence of oil phase was found to accelerate the particle migration though the core. The discussion of various mechanisms suggested that the improvement in the mobility ratio, possible wettability change and log-jamming effect were responsible for the observed phenomena.
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