Effectiveness of supercritical-CO2 and N2 huff-and-puff methods of enhanced oil recovery in shale fracture networks using microfluidic experiments

Nguyen, Phong Thanh; Carey, J. William; Viswanathan, Hari; Porter, Mark L.

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.08.098

Cited by 140 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Each branching segment splits the set of channels into additional channels of dissimilar widths. This network was etched into a 3 mm quartz slide using a programmable laser (Gravograph LS100) 34 , 35 . Power fluctuations during the etching and overlap of the raster pattern produced uneven and rough etched surfaces.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D particle transport in multichannel microfluidic networks with rough surfaces

Ryan

Chen

Nguyen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The transport of particles and fluids through multichannel microfluidic networks is influenced by details of the channels. Because channels have micro-scale textures and macro-scale geometries, this transport can differ from the case of ideally smooth channels. Surfaces of real channels have irregular boundary conditions to which streamlines adapt and with which particle interact. In low-Reynolds number flows, particles may experience inertial forces that result in trans-streamline movement and the reorganization of particle distributions. Such transport is intrinsically 3D and an accurate measurement must capture movement in all directions. To measure the effects of non-ideal surface textures on particle transport through complex networks, we developed an extended field-of-view 3D macroscope for high-resolution tracking across large volumes (25 mm × 25 mm × 2 mm) and investigated a model multichannel microfluidic network. A topographical profile of the microfluidic surfaces provided lattice Boltzmann simulations with a detailed feature map to precisely reconstruct the experimental environment. Particle distributions from simulations closely reproduced those observed experimentally and both measurements were sensitive to the effects of surface roughness. Under the conditions studied, inertial focusing organized large particles into an annular distribution that limited their transport throughout the network while small particles were transported uniformly to all regions. Particles flowing through channels can be transported across streamlines due to inertial and collisional forces 1. When particle size is comparable to the dimensions of a channel (within a couple orders of magnitude), movement can be strongly influenced by properties of and interactions with the local fluid flow as well as the topography of the channel surfaces. Many naturally occurring and artificial particle-fluid-surface systems operate at such size scales, and some applications even leverage these interactions to produce specific behavior. For example, flow cytometry can use specialized flow-cells to exploit inertial effects for passively sorting particles by size 2. However, at such close proximity to channel walls, particle trajectories will also be impacted by the contours of those surfaces. In hydraulic fracturing for hydrocarbon extraction, proppants must be efficiently transported deep within fracture networks. Rough surfaces and complex fracture networks can restrict movement of these particles. Thus, developing comprehensive understanding of particle-fluid-surface interactions in this size regime is necessary for many fields. Particle flow through channels has seen a great deal of interest in the microfluidics community as applications promise rapid and high-throughput particle processing 1-9. For example, inertial focusing moves different sized particles to unique equilibrium positions within a stream and separation can be done by segmenting the fluid into bins by splitting the single channel among multiple outlets according to the eq...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D particle transport in multichannel microfluidic networks with rough surfaces

Ryan

Chen

Nguyen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…This is because of the concentration difference of N 2 in the sandpack. By this diffusion way, N 2 was almost unaffected by permeability, so N 2 can reach the channel with low permeability (Nguyen et al, 2018). In the first cycle (Figure 14), the N 2 existed in the sandpack in the form of dispersed small bubbles.…”

Section: Analysis Of Huff-n-puff Processmentioning

confidence: 98%

Research on Mechanism of Enhancing Recovery of Heavy Oil With N2 Huff-n-Puff Assisted by Viscosity Reducer

et al. 2020

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“…With the increasing energy consumption and the decline of conventional oil production, the tight oil is another new unconventional resource after the shale gas . It is praised as new “black gold” by the petroleum industry .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the increasing energy consumption and the decline of conventional oil production, the tight oil is another new unconventional resource after the shale gas. 1 It is praised as new "black gold" by the petroleum industry. [2][3][4][5] As Figure 1 shows, future growth in US crude oil production is projected to be driven by the development of tight oil with the worldwide decline of conventional oil production, and tight oil production will generally increase through the early 2040s when it | 1195 WU et al…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because of its poor solubility in the oil, the positive effect of oil swelling due to N 2 dissolution is minimal. While nitrogen gas has good elastic energy during the flooding to maintain the reservoir pressure 1,[26][27][28][29][30] and has other advantages, such as its abundance in atmosphere, relatively low-cost and well-established harnessing/capture technology, and its noncorrosive property. 31 This makes nitrogen gas another significant gas candidate to improve tight oil reservoirs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation of CO₂/N₂ injection in tight oil reservoirs with confinement effect

Wang

et al. 2019

Energy Science & Engineering

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This paper investigates the CO2/N2 injection process in tight oil reservoirs considering the confinement effect. To study the microscopic physical mechanisms, the confinement effect is characterized by properties shift and capillarity and introduced into the flash calculation to obtain the phase equilibrium of mixture fluids (tight oil/CO2/N2) in tight porous media. The results indicate that the injected nitrogen gas could effectively maintain the reservoir pressure, while it also weakens the effects of the CO2 injection recovery mechanisms, notably diffusivity and viscosity reduction. In addition, a dual‐pore tight oil reservoir model is set up to investigate the CO2/N2 injection with ultra‐low permeability and hydraulic fracturing. The basic CO2 injection parameters are optimized by the orthogonal method. Based on CO2 injection process, three injection schemes of CO2/N2 injection, which are mixed‐gas injection, CO2‐alternating‐N2 (CAN) injection, and N2‐alternating‐CO2 (NAC) injection, were investigated and a comparative analysis was made for the pressure distribution, CO2 mole fraction distribution, and cumulative oil production. Based on this analysis, the CAN injection process proved to be the best injection scheme. A parametric analysis further suggested that the nitrogen gas injection rate was the most important factor. Besides, the effect of gravity drainage, reservoir permeability, nature fractures, and permeability heterogeneity on the oil production of CAN injection process were also investigated in detail. The results show that tight oil reservoir with better vertical connectivity, poor fracture growth, and higher heterogeneity is more favorable for the CO2/N2 injection process.

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Effectiveness of supercritical-CO2 and N2 huff-and-puff methods of enhanced oil recovery in shale fracture networks using microfluidic experiments

Cited by 140 publications

References 45 publications

3D particle transport in multichannel microfluidic networks with rough surfaces

3D particle transport in multichannel microfluidic networks with rough surfaces

Research on Mechanism of Enhancing Recovery of Heavy Oil With N2 Huff-n-Puff Assisted by Viscosity Reducer

Investigation of CO₂/N₂ injection in tight oil reservoirs with confinement effect

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Effectiveness of supercritical-CO2 and N2 huff-and-puff methods of enhanced oil recovery in shale fracture networks using microfluidic experiments

Cited by 140 publications

References 45 publications

3D particle transport in multichannel microfluidic networks with rough surfaces

3D particle transport in multichannel microfluidic networks with rough surfaces

Research on Mechanism of Enhancing Recovery of Heavy Oil With N2 Huff-n-Puff Assisted by Viscosity Reducer

Investigation of CO2/N2 injection in tight oil reservoirs with confinement effect

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Investigation of CO₂/N₂ injection in tight oil reservoirs with confinement effect