From Phase Behavior to Understand the Dominant Mechanism of Alkali‐Surfactant‐Polymer Flooding in Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery

Wei, Bing; Lu, Laiming; Pu, Wanfen; Jiang, Feng; Li, Kexing; Sun, Lin; Jin, Fang

doi:10.1007/s11743-016-1920-x

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Tertiary oil recovery, also referred to as enhanced oil recovery (EOR), improves oil recovery by either increasing the macroscopic sweep efficiency or increasing the microscopic displacement efficiency . The oil recovery could be increased by improving the viscosity of injected fluid and/or reducing the oil–water interfacial tension (IFT). , Chemical flooding methods, such as polymer flooding, surfactant flooding, alkali flooding, alkali/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding, etc., have been widely studied and successfully applied in the oil industry. − …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous Emulsification via Once Bottom-Up Cycle for the Crude Oil in Low-Permeability Reservoirs

Yang

et al. 2018

Energy Fuels

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The formulation and mechanism of a hybrid ultralow interfacial tension spontaneous emulsification (SE) system consisting of alkyl polyglucoside surfactant and low-concentration alkali were investigated to enhance oil recovery for low-permeability reservoirs. Multiple-light scattering was used to characterize the stability and demulsification process of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions. The emulsions were evaluated in terms of droplet size distribution, ζ potential, and three-phase rheological property. The average droplet size of the optimum SE O/W emulsion is about 0.2 μm, which is smaller than the average diameter of the low-permeability throats (0.2–4.0 μm). The coalescence and floatation of emulsion droplets are well-deferred. The oscillation–shear–oscillation rheological property could be further improved with the presence of the optimum system. This can be attributed to the synergistic effect of surfactants and alkali, which enables the formation of a more tight arrangement film of surfactants at the oil–water interface. Subsequently, diffusion of the surfactant from the interface to the bulk phase is inhibited by enhancing the interfacial viscosity. Moreover, the flooding results from the visual micromodel experiments demonstrate that the small residual oil droplets could be displaced easily in the porous media. The newly formulated SE system can be applied to enhance oil recovery for low-permeability reservoirs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous Emulsification via Once Bottom-Up Cycle for the Crude Oil in Low-Permeability Reservoirs

Yang

et al. 2018

Energy Fuels

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“…This makes surfactant work more efficiently, hence its injected amount is decreased. Other mechanisms include emulsification, oil entrainment, bubble entrapment and wettability reversal [57,63,450,[493][494][495]. Nevertheless, the alkaline solution also reacts with the rock and connate water in the reservoir.…”

Section: Mechanisms Of Alkaline Floodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical enhanced oil recovery and the role of chemical product design

2019

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“…Alkaline flooding has been found to be an efficient and economical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique for decades. − In recent years, alkalis have also been integrated with other EOR techniques such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), − surfactant and/or polymer flooding, − and nanoparticle-assisted processes − by taking the advantages of reducing the surfactant adsorption loss, protecting surfactant against divalent ions, and reacting with the petroleum acids to form in situ surfactant . The in situ generated surfactant helps to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and the aqueous phase, while amphiphilic components (e.g., resins, asphaltenes, and natural petroleum acids) in crude oil strengthen the stability of a water–oil emulsion. , The lower the IFT is, the more easily the crude oil could be emulsified with water. , Once an O/W emulsion is formed, the mobility of the oil phase can be greatly improved .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Population Balance Model for Emulsion Behavior of Alkaline Water–Heavy Oil Systems in Bulk Phase

Zhao

Jia

et al. 2021

Energy Fuels

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Experimental and theoretical techniques have been developed to quantify the behavior of alkaline water−heavy oil emulsion systems at high pressures and elevated temperatures. Experimentally, initial emulsions were prepared by agitating either sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) solution or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution with heavy oil samples inside a visualized PVT cell. After being settled for a certain period of time, the phase volume of the in situ generated water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion was monitored, and the local water content distribution within each dual-emulsion system was measured. Experiments with the same composition and mixing condition, but with different settling times, were conducted to track the continuous water content distribution. Mathematically, two groups of population balance equations (PBEs) were modified and applied to quantify the phase behavior during the emulsion destabilization process with the consideration of coalescence, settling, and diffusion of the dispersed droplets as well as the mass transfer between emulsion phases. To quantify the mass transfer between the W/O and oil-in-water (O/ W) emulsion phases, the measured emulsion inversion point (EIP) was used as the interface boundary condition of the dualemulsion systems. Both the fixed-pivot technique and a semi-implicit finite difference approach were applied for discretizing the internal coordinate (droplet volume) and the external coordinates in time and space domains, respectively. By assuming the dispersed droplets as a log-normal distribution, the genetic algorithm (GA) was applied to optimize the coalescence efficiency by using the experimental measurements as well as the water droplet distribution in the W/O emulsion phase. Because of the corresponding changes of oil viscosity and interfacial tension (IFT), either an increase in temperature or a decrease in pressure leads to a smaller EIP and higher coalescence efficiency. As a weak alkali, Na 2 CO 3 facilitates the stabilization of the emulsion and inhibits the influence of higher temperatures, while NaOH solution−heavy oil systems achieve emulsion inversion more easily.

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From Phase Behavior to Understand the Dominant Mechanism of Alkali‐Surfactant‐Polymer Flooding in Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery

Cited by 19 publications

References 30 publications

Spontaneous Emulsification via Once Bottom-Up Cycle for the Crude Oil in Low-Permeability Reservoirs

Spontaneous Emulsification via Once Bottom-Up Cycle for the Crude Oil in Low-Permeability Reservoirs

Chemical enhanced oil recovery and the role of chemical product design

A Population Balance Model for Emulsion Behavior of Alkaline Water–Heavy Oil Systems in Bulk Phase

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