A pore-scale study of foam-microemulsion interaction during low tension gas flooding using microfluidics - Tertiary recovery

Das, Alolika; Mohanty, Kishore K.; Nguyen, Quoc P.

doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2021.108596

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…[16] With microfluidic systems, a controlled volume of displacing fluid is injected into the micromodel patterns, and in-situ phenomena during the displacement are visualized and recorded on a computer using a high-resolution camera and microscope combination. Such a device has been applied in several EOR applications, including water injection, [17] polymer injection/surfactant injection/alkaline-surfactantpolymer (ASP) flooding, [18][19][20][21] gas injection, [22] foam flooding, [23][24][25] nanoparticle injection, [26,27] thermal based EOR, [28,29] and so forth. [30][31][32][33] As an integral component of a microfluidic device, a visual micromodel pattern, which is a 2D pore network representation of the rock, is employed to offer a pore-scale perspective of the transport process under investigation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[ 16 ] With microfluidic systems, a controlled volume of displacing fluid is injected into the micromodel patterns, and in‐situ phenomena during the displacement are visualized and recorded on a computer using a high‐resolution camera and microscope combination. Such a device has been applied in several EOR applications, including water injection, [ 17 ] polymer injection/surfactant injection/alkaline–surfactant–polymer (ASP) flooding, [ 18–21 ] gas injection, [ 22 ] foam flooding, [ 23–25 ] nanoparticle injection, [ 26,27 ] thermal based EOR, [ 28,29 ] and so forth. [ 30–33 ]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microfluidic study of surfactant flooding of heavy oil in layered porous media containing fractures

Arabloo,

Ghazanfari,

Rashtchian

2024

Can J Chem Eng

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Surfactant injection is a promising method for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) due to its effective micro‐displacement mechanisms. However, understanding the interaction of a surfactant solution with heavy oil in porous media is neither straightforward nor well understood, particularly in heterogeneous systems. By enabling in‐situ real‐time monitoring of flow transport, microfluidic studies have provided novel insights into the underlying multiphase physics of flow at the pore scale. This paper examines the two‐phase displacement efficiency of a new surfactant in layered–fractured porous microfluidic patterns, a topic seldom discussed in the literature. To evaluate the performance of the proposed surfactant, we considered several heterogeneous media with varying layer and fracture geometrical characteristics, quantifying displacement efficiency for each case. Based on the analysis of pore‐scale snapshots, it was inferred that the primary mechanisms responsible for EOR during surfactant flooding into heavy oil include pore wall transportation, emulsifications, the deformation of residual oil, inter‐pore or intra‐pore bridging, and wettability alteration. Macroscopic displacement experiments revealed that the width of the swept area from surfactant injection significantly exceeded that of water injection, resulting in a substantially higher oil recovery. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the direction of fluid flow in relation to fracture orientation plays a critical role in the dynamics of surfactant solution movement and, consequently, the ultimate oil production.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidic study of surfactant flooding of heavy oil in layered porous media containing fractures

Arabloo,

Ghazanfari,

Rashtchian

2024

Can J Chem Eng

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“…The microemulsion equilibration time was improved in the presence of foam due to the increased mixing of the liquid phases. The presence of trapped gas helped divert the flowing surfactant/microemulsion to regions with trapped remaining oil and thus improved oil recovery . Nguyen et al studied the effectiveness of supercritical-CO 2 and N 2 huff-and-puff methods of enhanced oil recovery in shale fracture networks using micro-experiments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presence of trapped gas helped divert the flowing surfactant/microemulsion to regions with trapped remaining oil and thus improved oil recovery. 23 Nguyen et al studied the effectiveness of supercritical-CO 2 and N 2 huff-and-puff methods of enhanced oil recovery in shale fracture networks using micro-experiments. Their results exhibited that supercritical CO 2 huff-and-puff injection can significantly increase recovery in shale and gas injection is more effective in connected fracture networks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Behaviors and Mechanisms of Air-Foam Flooding at High Pressure and Reservoir Temperature via Microfluidic Experiments

Xin

Ren

2022

ACS Omega

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Air injection has been proven to be an effective improved oil recovery technique for deep and light oil reservoirs with low permeability and poor water injectivity. But the efficiency of air injection in highly heterogeneous reservoirs is low due to poor gas sweeping that may lead to early oxygen breakthrough caused by gas channeling and viscous fingering. Foam can be used to assist air injection to overcome the obstacles of early gas breakthrough and to increase the displacement and sweeping efficiency. In this paper, laser-etched visual microscopic pore models were used as microfluidic devices to study the air-foam flooding process in porous media at reservoir temperature and high pressure. The dynamic behaviors and relevant mechanisms of air-foam flooding were investigated. Typical mechanisms of foam generation in porous media are achieved in different parts of the micromodel, which can be listed as follows: lamella leave-behind, lamella division, and snap off. Analysis on flow states of air foam showed that foams migrate in porous media by bursting and regenerating during the flooding process. It can be observed that the flow mode of foam in porous media is the separate flow of gas and liquid through microscopic displacement experiments, suggesting that foam should not be treated as a homogeneous phase in heterogeneous porous media. The pressing, occupying, and selective blocking effects of foam in porous media exhibited different oil displacement performances with the presence of various pore geometries and networks. Tiny foams also showed stripping and carrying effects on larger oil droplets benefiting from the lipophilicity of foam. Through comprehensive analysis on overall and local oil displacement mechanisms, air-foam injection could enhance the microscopic sweep volume and improve the oil displacement efficiency.

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“…The internal relationship between the two classification methods is that the first six research methods belong to macroscopic analysis while the microscopic experiment method concentrates on microscopic analysis. Recently, with the combination of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology and core displacement experiment [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], the visualization technology from macroscopic displacement to micro imaging has been realized. However, this visualization technology has not yet reached the level of microscopic scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization of Water Plugging Displacement with Foam/Gel Flooding in Internally Heterogeneous Reservoirs

Zhang¹,

He²,

Liu³

et al. 2021

Fluid Dynamics &Amp; Materials Processing

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During the displacement of water plugging with binary flooding in internally heterogeneous reservoirs, it is essential to understand the distributions of remaining oil as well as the oil displacement mechanisms at different stages. In this study, two types of internally heterogeneous systems, i.e., vertical and horizontal wells are investigated experimentally through a microscopic approach. The results show that plugging agent types have a greater impact on oil recovery than well types, and foam injection can enhance oil recovery more effectively than gel injection. Additionally, the injection sequence of plugging agents significantly affects oil displacement efficiency. Injecting gel after foam is more beneficial. According to the present results, the main formation mechanisms of remaining oil in each displacement stage are influenced by: capillary force, viscous force, inertial force, shear force, microscopic fingering & channeling.

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A pore-scale study of foam-microemulsion interaction during low tension gas flooding using microfluidics - Tertiary recovery

Cited by 9 publications

References 6 publications

Microfluidic study of surfactant flooding of heavy oil in layered porous media containing fractures

Microfluidic study of surfactant flooding of heavy oil in layered porous media containing fractures

Dynamic Behaviors and Mechanisms of Air-Foam Flooding at High Pressure and Reservoir Temperature via Microfluidic Experiments

Visualization of Water Plugging Displacement with Foam/Gel Flooding in Internally Heterogeneous Reservoirs

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