Experimental Study of Foam Generation, Sweep Efficiency, and Flow in a Fracture Network

Fernø, Martin A.; Gauteplass, Jarand; Pancharoen, Monrawee; Haugen, Åsmund; Graue, A.; Kovscek, Anthony R.; Hirasaki, George J.

doi:10.2118/170840-pa

Cited by 57 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In our experiments, diffusion does not have time eliminate these bubbles because bubble residence time in our model is relatively short, approximately 2.7 min 21 . A similar observation of bubbles smaller than pores was reported in another study of foam flow in fractures 20 .…”

Section: In-situ Foam Generationsupporting

confidence: 86%

Foam Generation and Rheology in a Variety of Model Fractures

AlQuaimi

Rossen

2018

Energy Fuels

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Gas is used in petroleum reservoirs to displace oil for enhanced oil recovery. The microscopic displacement efficiency of gas is very good, but at the reservoir scale the process suffers from poor sweep efficiency, especially in naturally fractured reservoirs. Foam can improve the sweep. There have been considerable scientific contributions towards understanding foam flow in nonfractured porous media, with relatively little work on foam flow in fractured porous media. We investigate foam-generation mechanisms in five fully characterized glass models of fractures with different apertures and correlation lengths of the aperture distribution. We also study the rheology of the in-situ-generated foam by varying the superficial velocities of the gas and surfactant solution. We compare the measured pressure gradient against the fracture attributes, aperture and the correlation length of the aperture. We also compare foam texture as a function of position within the fracture as the generated foam propagates through the fracture. Gas mobility was greatly reduced as a result of in-situ foam generation in our model fractures. Foam was generated predominantly by capillary snap-off and lamella division. The measured mobility reduction depends on fracture attributes. Fracture-wall roughness, represented by both the hydraulic aperture and the correlation length of the aperture, plays an important role in foam generation and mobility. Average bubble size increases as the aperture increases, which results in a significant decrease in pressure gradient. Two model fractures show the same two foam-flow regimes central to the understanding of foam in nonfractured porous media: a low-quality regime where pressure gradient is independent of liquid velocity and a high-quality regime where pressure gradient is independent of gas velocity. The mechanisms thought to be behind these two regimes in nonfractured porous media do not apply to these experiments, however. Sample 2

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Section: In-situ Foam Generationsupporting

confidence: 86%

Foam Generation and Rheology in a Variety of Model Fractures

AlQuaimi

Rossen

2018

Energy Fuels

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“…Fewer and coarser bubbles related to the highest gas fraction are likely caused by thinning of lamellae (a larger fraction of the liquid is located in the Plateau border), followed by film rupture due to higher capillary-suction pressure compared to lower gas fractional flow. The observations are consistent with earlier results, where larger bubbles were observed with increased gas fractional flow in a fracture network [39,70].…”

Section: Sweep Efficiencysupporting

confidence: 93%

New Insight from Visualization of Mobility Control for Enhanced Oil Recovery Using Polymer Gels and Foams

Brattekås¹,

Fernø²

2016

Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (cEOR) - A Practical Overview

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Several enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods have been designed and developed in the past decades to maintain economic production from mature reservoirs with declining production rates. This chapter discuss mitigation of poor sweep efficiency in layered or naturally fractured reservoirs. EOR methods designed for such reservoirs all aim to reduce flow through highly conductive pathways and delay early breakthrough in production wells. Two approaches within this EOR class, injection of foam and polymer, specifically aim to improve the mobility ratio between the injected EOR fluid and the reservoir crude oil. Reduction in fracture conductivity may be achieved by adding a crosslinking agent to a polymer solution to create polymer gel. This may also be combined with water or chemical chasefloods (e.g. foam) for integrated enhanced oil recovery (iEOR). Polymer gel and foam mobility control for use in fractured reservoirs are discussed in this chapter, and new knowledge from experimental work is presented. The experiments emphasized visualization and in situ imaging techniques: CT, MRI and PET. New insight to dynamic behaviour and local variations in fluid saturations during injections was achieved through the use of complementary visualization techniques.

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“…Foam control gas mobility and spontaneously diverts a gas to the lower permeable zones leading to the sweep conformance and enhanced recovery (Ferno et al 2016). Detail information on diversion of gas by foam have been reported (Casteel & Djabbarah 1988;Kovscek & Bertin 2003;Llave et al 1990;Nguyen et al 2005;Zerhboub et al 1994) and its visual evidence has been provided by Guteplass et al (2015).…”

Section: Sweep Efficiency Improvementmentioning

confidence: 97%