Characterization of viscous fingering during displacements of low tension natural surfactant in fractured multi-layered heavy oil systems

Arabloo, Milad; Shokrollahi, Amin; Ghazanfari, Mohammad Hossein; Rashtchian, Davood

doi:10.1016/j.cherd.2015.01.009

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Biosurfactants are becoming more widely utilized in drilling and enhanced oil recovery applications [40,47,63,64]. The olive tree is widely grown around the world for the commercial production of olives and olive oil.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Colloidal Gas Aphron Fluids Formulated with a Biosurfactant Enhanced by Silica Nanoparticles

Tabzar¹,

Sadatshojaie

Wood³

2020

Preprint

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<p>At-balance drilling technology applications demand the use of special drilling fluids, For example, colloidal-gas-aphron fluids (CGA) are being deployed to good effect in drilling applications. GCA-based drilling fluids have physico-chemical attributes that enable them to usefully influence and control downhole conditions. Furthermore, the involvement of nanoparticles and surfactants in their formulations enhances the performance and stability of CGA suspensions. This study describes the stability analysis, rheological characterization and filtration properties of CGA suspensions for the novel eco-friendly biosurfactant, <i>Olea europaea </i>(common olive), in presence of nanoparticles. Filtration and stability analysis was performed using API filtration tests and the static drain-rate technique, respectively. Several rheological models are developed to quantify the shear-flow characteristics of Olea-nano-based CGA suspensions. The Herschel-Bulkley and the Mizhari-Berk models provided the best shear-flow prediction accuracy with very small error values in terms of root mean squared error. Results reveal that the introduction of the biosurfactant improves the CGA-based fluid properties. Moreover, the observed improvements are further enhanced by including silica and fumed silica nanoparticles in the formulations. The Olea-nano-CGA-based fluids exhibit non-Newtonian behavior. The rheology of CGA-based fluids depends upon base-fluid viscosity, as it does in aqueous polymeric foams. The optimum concentrations of nanoparticles in Olea-nano-based CGA fluids is identified to provide them with fluid-flow indices ranging between 0.15 and 0.30. </p>

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Colloidal Gas Aphron Fluids Formulated with a Biosurfactant Enhanced by Silica Nanoparticles

Tabzar¹,

Sadatshojaie

Wood³

2020

Preprint

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“…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%

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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“…The phenomenon responsible for this poor sweeping is called viscous fingering. This phenomenon was introduced, for the first time, by Engelberts and Klinkeberg in the early fifties but it still a current for researchers [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, several varieties of surfactants are applied. However, the prices of these surfactants are excessive and their impact on the environment is harmful [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Study of Viscous Fingering in Heterogeneous Porous Media

2022

IJM

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The displacement of a fluid by a second immiscible fluid is a fundamental process which is relevant for many technological applications, particularly in the petroleum industry. Water is the fluid widely used to push oil to production wells. During this immiscible displacement, a viscous fingering instability appears at the water-oil interface. This undesirable phenomenon leads to a low oil sweeping efficiency. To prevent this situation, techniques called EOR (Enhance Oil Recovery) are used. These methods have technical, economic and environmental disadvantages. Therefore, the objective of this work is to seek a rational use of EOR techniques by determining the right place and the appropriate time to operate them. In many previous studies, the effects of viscosity ratio, interfacial tension and flow rate are investigated. In this study, we numerically investigate the effect of the heterogeneity of the medium and the presence of the fracture on this phenomenon. Three different configurations are studied. The obtained results allowed to locate the regions where the behaviour of the instability varies during displacement in the porous medium, regions where instability is increasing and others where it remains constant. a qualitative comparison between the different cases is also made.

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Characterization of viscous fingering during displacements of low tension natural surfactant in fractured multi-layered heavy oil systems

Cited by 12 publications

References 47 publications

Effectiveness of Colloidal Gas Aphron Fluids Formulated with a Biosurfactant Enhanced by Silica Nanoparticles

Effectiveness of Colloidal Gas Aphron Fluids Formulated with a Biosurfactant Enhanced by Silica Nanoparticles

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

Numerical Study of Viscous Fingering in Heterogeneous Porous Media

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