Experimental Investigation and Modelling of Colloidal Release in Porous Media

Abstract

Gas production from underground storage reservoirs is sometimes associated with solid particles eroded from the rock matrix. This phenomenon often called sand production can cause damage to the storage equipments, leading the operator to choke the wells and prevent them from producing at full capacity. Colloid release is often associated as a precursor of larger solid production. Indeed, in sandstone storage sites, clay release induced by the presence of condensed water associated with the gas production in the near-wellbore region can be a forecast of intergranular cement erosion. The objective of this work is twofold: firstly to experimentally investigate colloidal particle detachment through ionic strength reduction (absence of salinity of the condensed water) in porous media and secondly to determine its evolution with time and to model it. Laboratory experiments with model systems are developed to reproduce the particle generation and their transport in porous media. The model porous medium is a packed column of two powders: silicon carbide particles of 50 µm and silica particles of 0.5 µm (3% by weight) initially mixed together. Brine flows at different concentrations are imposed through the porous sample and, at very low salt concentration, colloid silica particles are massively released from the medium. Experimental evolutions of the particle concentration with time are compared to solutions of the advection-dispersion equation including first-order source terms for colloid release. The dispersion coefficients of the porous medium have been determined with tracer tests. The experimental results exhibit a different behaviour at short-and long-time intervals and a model has been built to predict the colloid production evolution with the introduction of two different time scales for the eroded rate. The model can be used in a core test to evaluate the amount of detachable fines and the rate of erosion.

Particle Detachment Under Velocity Alternation During Suspension Transport in Porous Media

“…Design and behaviour prediction of the above mentioned technological processes are based on mathematical modelling. The classical filtration model assumes simultaneous first-order kinetics for the particle capture and detachment (Schijven and Hassanizadeh 2000;Bailey et al 2000;Bradford et al 2003;Tufenkji 2007;Lin et al 2009;Civan 2007Civan , 2010Massoudieh and Ginn 2010;Gitis et al 2010;Gravelle et al 2011). The detachment rate is assumed to be proportional to the difference between the current and critical parameters like velocity, concentrations, etc.…”

Controlled Release of Colloidal Particles and Remediation: Experimental Investigation and Modelling

“…Grains and fines were mixed together in a specific dry mixer which executes different loops to ensure a good mixing. To ensure the reproducibility of our results, we tested different ways to spread fines into the matrix and similar results were found (Gravelle et al, 2011).…”

“…Flow of solvent triggering the fine release is also modelled to take into account the delay of production. This model is fully detailed in Gravelle et al (2011). In dimensionless form, the model is as follows.…”

Effect of MgO Nanofluid Injection into Water Sensitive Formation to Prevent the Water Shock Permeability Impairment

“…Therefore, this repulsive energy overcome to London Van der Waals attraction and fine particles detached from rock surface. Gravelle et al (2011) investigated colloidal detachment of particles through ionic strength reduction in porous media and modeled the colloidal release with solutions of advection-dispersion equation including first order terms for colloid release. El-Monier and Nasr-El-Din (2010, 2011) developed a new Al/Zr based clay stabilizer to mitigate the fines migration.…”