Experimental study of polymer injection enhanced oil recovery in homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media using glass-type micromodels

Abstract

In water flooding process, volumetric sweep efficiency and oil recovery can be enhanced using polymer to increase the viscosity of water. As a result, polymer flooding has higher recovery as compared to water flooding due to front stability and reduction of fingering problem. In this research work, a set of polymer flooding runs were carried out using glass-type micromodels. The micromodels were fabricated to have homogeneous and heterogeneous flow patterns. They were positioned horizontally and saturated with a heavy crude oil sample taken from an Iranian oil field before starting the injection. Three commercial polymers were used in this study. Whole process was photographed continuously with a high-resolution camera to monitor the displacement of polymer solution in the micromodels. As a part of this study, the effect of different parameters including polymer solution concentration, injection flow rate and heterogeneity on performance of polymer flooding was investigated. On top of the regular homogeneous and heterogeneous flow patterns used in this study, a heterogeneous flow pattern mimicking sandstone reservoirs was created based on the image of a thin section of a sandstone (outcrop) and polymer front movement was observed during injection.

A Review on Foam Stabilizers for Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…The effect of injection rate becomes more critical in heterogeneous formations and can change the oil recovery drastically. Hosseini et al performed a series of experiments using different injection rates and found that the lower rate results in a stable displacing front with piston-like displacement . Also, they concluded that the polymer injection is more fruitful in homogeneous media than in heterogeneous media.…”

“…Comparison between a flooded pattern for two different injection flow rates . The upper figure is at an injection rate of 0.0005 cc/min, while the lower figure is at an injection rate of 0.0002 cc/min.…”

“…The brown color represents oil, while the white color represents polymer. Reproduced with permission from ref . Copyright 2019 Springer.…”

“…Hosseini et al performed a series of experiments using different injection rates and found that the lower rate results in a stable displacing front with piston-like displacement. 104 Also, they concluded that the polymer injection is more fruitful in homogeneous media than in heterogeneous media. Figure 7 shows the comparison in foam distribution for two different injection rates.…”

A Core Flood and Microfluidics Investigation of Nanocellulose as a Chemical Additive to Water Flooding for EOR

“…Microfluidic micromodels have been used for assessing surfactant-polymer flooding mixed with nanoclay for improving heavy oil recovery [ 37 ], evaluating polymer EOR for unconsolidated sand reservoirs [ 38 ], investigating EOR mechanisms associated with injecting silica nanoparticles [ 39 ], and the screening of surface-modified silica nanoparticles for EOR [ 40 ]. They also have been used to study the effect of the polymer concentration and injection rate on the sweep efficiency [ 41 ], examining the impact of fluid rheology on oil recovery [ 42 ], and simulation of fluid configurations captured from imbibition and drainage experiments on a micromodel [ 43 ].…”