Effect of Low-Saline Aqueous Solutions and pH on the Desorption of Crude Oil Fractions from Silica Surfaces

Farooq, Umer; Asif, Naveed; Tweheyo, Medad T.; Sjöblom, Johan; Øye, Gisle

doi:10.1021/ef1013538

Cited by 38 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The EDL expansion could also be not large enough to stimulate the attraction of polar components toward the interface to form the viscoelastic interface. The previous study suggested that a critical expansion of the EDL is required for oil displacement [63]. These results also substantiate previous macroscopic core flooding experiments discussed in the literature that the low-salinity effect on EOR from sandstone (silica) is mostly dominated by the presence of significant clay minerals [64].…”

Section: Figure 8 Proposed Chemical Interactions Between Oil/brine/hsupporting

confidence: 90%

Pore-Scale Displacement Efficiency during Different Salinity Water Flooding in Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Microstructures

et al. 2019

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Previous macroscopic core flooding tests have shown that injecting low salinity water improves oil recovery in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs through wettability alteration. However, consistent mechanistic clarification of the underlying physicochemical mechanisms involved in oil wettability at the porescale level is not fully understood. In this work, a microfluidic approach is used to provide in-situ visualization of oil-brine flow to give an indication of the micromechanisms affecting oil sweep efficiency. The potential of enhancing oil recovery by low-salinity flooding at the microscale is also investigated, which would help in predicting a reservoir's performance before committing to production processes at a large field scale. Two types of crude oils with various acid numbers were used, and hydrophilic and hydrophobic physical microstructures were used to mimic sandstones and carbonates. The results revealed a reduction by 7-10% in the residual oil for the water-wet microstructure when the seawater was diluted twice from its original concentration, apparently due to a decrease in the attractive forces. There is no change in the recovery factor for the oil-wet micromodel for the two kinds of crude oils examined. Tertiary low-salinity flooding did not show any effect on the initial wetting state of the hydrophobic surface, rendering it with a strongly oil-wet condition. It is also observed that flow dynamics of the two microstructures examined are different, as the snap-off-coalesce phenomenon dominants the flow in the water-wet system, while oil moved by a piston-like displacement with a stable or irregular front in the hydrophobic system. In contrast to some of the published macroscopic results, our pore-scale displacement shows that low salinity flooding seems to be an unsuitable choice for enhanced oil recovery for strongly oil-wet reservoirs.

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Section: Figure 8 Proposed Chemical Interactions Between Oil/brine/hsupporting

confidence: 90%

Pore-Scale Displacement Efficiency during Different Salinity Water Flooding in Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Microstructures

et al. 2019

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“…In this case, despite the ionic strength of salt solution being reduced at neutral pH value, the repulsive electrostatic force is likely to be insufficient to promote the desorption. Farooq et al [15] found that a critical expansion of the EDL is required for further desorption from silica by low salinity solution.…”

Section: Desorption Of Crude Oil From Calcite and Silica Surfacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Low Salinity on the Oil Desorption Efficiency from Calcite and Silica Surfaces

Al-Khafaji¹,

Neville²,

Wilson³

et al. 2017

Energy Fuels

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Low salinity water flooding has been suggested to improve oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs. However, application in carbonate reservoirs is still controversial. In this work, Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM-D) was used to investigate the impact of the chemical composition of crude oils and crystal surfaces on the adsorption/desorption efficiency of oil components upon exposure to various salinity solutions to reveal the potential of enhancing oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs. The surface charge of carbonate rock is characterized by zeta potential measurements. For QCM-D measurements, Norwegian and North Sea crude oils with various acid numbers were used, while calcite and silica crystals were utilized to mimic carbonate and sandstone reservoirs. The results reveal that the amount of adsorption is correlated to the concentration of polar organic components present in the oil and the type of surface mineral. Subsequent desorption showed that low amounts of desorption are reported upon exposure to seawater for both surfaces examined, while two and ten times diluted seawater achieved the highest desorption efficiency. These observations are supported by zeta potential measurements for carbonate rock and previous electrokinetic studies for silica surfaces. Generally, increasing the content of negative polar components in crude oil leads to a reduced desorption from calcite surface compared to the silica surface. Low salinity water flooding seems not to be an

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“…The extent of adsorption, desorption, and wettability alteration would depend on both the crude oil properties and the type of EOR fluid. 27 , 28 Notably, in displacement studies using model oils, these phenomena are not an issue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Microfluidic Method to Study Enhanced Oil Recovery by Low Salinity Water Flooding

Saadat

Tsai

et al. 2020

ACS Omega

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Microfluidics is an appealing method to study processes at rock pore scale such as oil recovery because of the similar size range. It also offers several advantages over the conventional core flooding methodology, for example, easy cleaning and reuse of the same porous network chips or the option to visually track the process. In this study, the effects of injection rate, flood volume, micromodel structure, initial brine saturation, aging, oil type, brine concentration, and composition are systematically investigated. The recovery process is evaluated based on a series of images taken during the experiment. The remaining crude oil saturation reaches a steady state after injection of a few pore volumes of the brine flood. The higher the injection rate, the higher the emulsification and agitation, leading to unstable displacement. Low salinity brine recovered more oil than the high salinity brine. Aging, initial brine saturation, and the presence of divalent ions in the flood led to a decrease in the oil recovery. Most of the tests in this study showed viscous fingering. The analysis of the experimental parameters allowed to develop a reliable and repeatable procedure for microfluidic water flooding. With the method in place, the enhanced oil recovery test developed based on different variables showed an increase of up to 2% of the original oil in place at the tertiary stage.

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Effect of Low-Saline Aqueous Solutions and pH on the Desorption of Crude Oil Fractions from Silica Surfaces

Cited by 38 publications

References 48 publications

Pore-Scale Displacement Efficiency during Different Salinity Water Flooding in Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Microstructures

Pore-Scale Displacement Efficiency during Different Salinity Water Flooding in Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Microstructures

Effect of Low Salinity on the Oil Desorption Efficiency from Calcite and Silica Surfaces

Development of a Microfluidic Method to Study Enhanced Oil Recovery by Low Salinity Water Flooding

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