Experimental study on the temperature effects of foamy oil flow in porous media

Wu, Mingyi; Lu, Xinqian; Zhou, Xiang; Lin, Zeyu; Zeng, Fanhua

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117649

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Firstly, containers and pipelines were thoroughly cleaned using toluene, kerosene, and ethanol, followed by careful drying with compressed air. Secondly, the sandpack model's inner wall was coated with electrical tape to increase roughness, reducing the wall effect, and facilitating fluid flow [39]. Lastly, pressure tests were conducted by injecting N 2 at 6000 kPa for 24 h to assess pressure loss and ensure a leak-free system.…”

Section: Experiments Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Ethane-Based CSI Process and Two Types of Flooding Process as a Hybrid Method for Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery

Li,

Du,

Wang

et al. 2024

Energies

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Combining multiple secondary oil recovery (SOR)/enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods can be an effective way to maximize oil recovery from heavy oil reservoirs; however, previous studies typically focus on single methods. In order to optimize the combined process of ethane-based cyclic solvent injection (CSI) and water/nanoparticle-solution flooding, a comprehensive understanding of the impact of injection pressure, water, and nanoparticles on CSI performance is crucial. This study aims to provide such understanding through experimental evaluation, advancing the knowledge of EOR methods for heavy oil recovery. Three approaches (an ethane-based CSI process, water flooding, and nanoparticle-solution flooding) were applied through a cylindrical sandpack model with a length of 95.0 cm and a diameter of 3.8 cm. Test 1 conducted an ethane-based CSI process only. Test 2 conducted a combination approach of CSI–water flooding–CSI–nanoparticle-solution flooding–CSI. Specifically, the injection pressure of the first CSI phase in Test 2 was gradually increased from 3500 to 5500 kPa. The second and the third CSI phases had the same injection pressure as Test 1 at 5500 kPa. The CSI process ceased once the oil recovery was less than 0.5% of the original oil in place (OOIP) in a single cycle. Results show that the ethane-based CSI process is sensitive to injection pressure. A high injection pressure is crucial for optimal oil recovery. The first CSI phase in Test 2, where the injection pressure was increased gradually, resulted in a 2.9% lower oil recovery and five times as much ethane consumption compared to Test 1, which applied a high injection pressure. It was also found that water flooding improved the oil recovery in the CSI process. In Test 2, the oil recovery factor of the second CSI phase increased by 57% after the water flooding process, which is likely due to the formation of water channels and a dispersed oil phase that increased the contact area between ethane and oil. Although the nanoparticle-solution flooding only had 0.3% oil recovery, after that the third CSI phase stimulated another 10.8% of OOIP even when the water saturation achieved more than 65%. This demonstrated that the addition of nanoparticles can maintain the stability of the foam and enhance the transfer of ethane to the heavy oil. Finally, Test 2 reached a total oil recovery factor of 76.1% on a lab scale, an increase of 45% compared to the single EOR method, which proved the combination process is an efficient method to develop a heavy oil field.

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Section: Experiments Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Ethane-Based CSI Process and Two Types of Flooding Process as a Hybrid Method for Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery

Li,

Du,

Wang

et al. 2024

Energies

Self Cite

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“…The physical experiments are considered as the important method to studying the flow characteristics of the foamy oil (Li. et al, 2012;Busahmin et al, 2016;Zhou et al, 2016;Zhou et al, 2017b;Wu et al, 2020b). The foamy oil flow stage of superheavy oil reservoir is considered as the stage of oil production with the long gas dispersion time and the large bubble quantities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of different foamy oil flow characteristics and production performances of two similar super-heavy oil reservoirs using microscopic visual physical experiments

Xue,

Jia,

Wang

et al. 2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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Foamy oil flow is a potentially important reason for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in super-heavy oil reservoirs during depressurized cold production (DCP). M oil reservoir and H oil reservoir located in Venezuela are typical super-heavy oil reservoirs with the foamy oil flow stage, and the properties of two reservoirs are similar. However, the production performances between two reservoirs in the stage foamy oil flow is quite different. In this paper, the novel microscopic visual physical experiments for foamy oil flow have been carried out to determine the flow characteristics of foamy oil and production performance. Three production stages of DCP are divided: stage I (the pressure greater than bubble point pressure), stage II (the pressure ranging from pseudo bubble point pressure to bubble point pressure), and stage III (the pressure lower than pseudo bubble point pressure). Then, the effects of different foamy oil flow characteristics in each production stage on production performances are investigated using comparative analysis method. The results show that the flow characteristics of the oil in the M and H oil reservoirs are both single-phase flow at stage I of DCP and two-phase flow at stage III of DCP. However, a phenomenon of strong foamy oil flow appeared in M oil reservoir while a phenomenon of weak foamy oil flow appeared in H oil reservoir at stage II of DCP. For the production performance, the oil rate, cumulative oil production and cumulative gas production of M oil reservoir increased obviously, while which of H oil reservoir increased slowly. The reason for the difference between the two oil reservoirs is that the super-heavy oil of M oil reservoir has more dissolved GOR and asphaltene content compared to H oil reservoir, and the pressure and temperature of M oil reservoir are more suitable for strong foamy oil flow.

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“…Due to its thermodynamic instability, foam is affected by the high temperature of reservoirs and the high salinity of the rock during oil displacement, both of which decrease its stability. , It is necessary to further improve the recovery efficiency of foam flooding by adding materials to stabilize the system. Li et al used hydrophilic nanoparticles to stabilize a foam during foam flooding, which improved the foam duration and primary oil displacement capability under typical reservoir conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation on Microscopic Force Measurement of Foam and Heavy Oil

et al. 2020

Langmuir

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This paper combined experiments with a theoretical model to simulate the behavior between a foam and heavy oil during contact pressing, separation, and adsorption. We discuss the changes in the elasticity and adsorption forces during the pressing and adsorption of the two fluids. The influence of the changes in temperature and pressure, the concentration of the sodium dodecyl sulfate surfactant, the heavy oil viscosity, and the addition of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide and hydrophobic SiO 2 nanoparticles was studied. The results showed that the overall increase in the elasticity and adsorption forces between the foam at 1 wt % surfactant and heavy oil was more than 2 times greater than those of the foam with 0.2 wt % surfactant. The increase in viscosity of heavy oil also increased various forces. The overall improvement in the adsorption force between fluids caused by nanoparticles during separation and adsorption stages reached 1.8 times, which was better than that obtained using the polymer (1.65 times). However, the polymer showed a 1.4 times higher elastic force during the fluid pressing stage than the nanoparticles and about 4 times higher than the control foam, and the increase in temperature greatly weakened the effect of the force, while the change in pressure did not cause much impact. An analytical model was built based on fluid mechanics, and the calculation results were consistent with the experimental data with an error of about 5−12%, suggesting that this model provides a good reference value.

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Experimental study on the temperature effects of foamy oil flow in porous media

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

An Ethane-Based CSI Process and Two Types of Flooding Process as a Hybrid Method for Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery

An Ethane-Based CSI Process and Two Types of Flooding Process as a Hybrid Method for Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery

Comparative analysis of different foamy oil flow characteristics and production performances of two similar super-heavy oil reservoirs using microscopic visual physical experiments

Experimental Investigation on Microscopic Force Measurement of Foam and Heavy Oil

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