Highly stable carbon nanoparticles designed for downhole hydrocarbon detection

Hwang, Chih-Chau; Wang, Lu; Lu, Wei; Ruan, Gedeng; Kini, Gautam C.; Xiang, Changsheng; Samuel, Errol L. G.; Shi, Wei; Kan, Amy T.; Wong, Michael S.; Tomson, Mason B.; Tour, James M.

doi:10.1039/c2ee21574h

Cited by 42 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The use of nanoparticles (NPs) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has received intensive attention since 2008, and much work has been conducted that can be generally categorized as: (i) the development of 'contrast-agent' type NPs to improve the detection limitation of seismic and EM techniques for better reservoir characterization [1][2][3]; (ii) the use of NPs as property modifiers, i.e., to alter rock wettability and interfacial tension at the oil/water interface in order to increase oil recovery rates [4][5][6][7]; and (iii) the use of NPs for conformance control such as nanoparticle-stabilized emulsions, and gelation materials to block the easy flow paths [8,9]. All these applications require nanoparticles to transport long distances in reservoir rocks with minimal retention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transport and Deposition of Carbon Nanoparticles in Saturated Porous Media

Zhao

Gao

et al. 2017

Energies

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Carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) are becoming promising candidates for oil/gas applications due to their biocompatibility and size-dependent optical and electronic properties. Their applications, however, are always associated with the flow of nanoparticles inside a reservoir, i.e., a porous medium, where insufficient studies have been conducted. In this work, we synthesized CNPs with two different size categories in 200 nm carbon balls (CNP-200) and 5 nm carbon dots (CNP-5), via a hydrothermal carbonation process. Comprehensive experiments in packed glass bead columns, as well as mathematical simulations, were conducted to understand the transport and deposition of CNPs under various ionic strength, particle sizes and concentration conditions. Our results show that the retention of CNP-200 is highly sensitive to the salinity and particle concentrations, while both of them are unaffected in the transport of small CNP-5. Supplemented with Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory, the clean bed filtration theory with blocking effect can successfully fit the experimental breakthrough curves of CNP-200. However, the high breakthrough ability for CNP-5 regardless of ionic strength change is in conflict with the energy interactions predicted by traditional DLVO theory.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transport and Deposition of Carbon Nanoparticles in Saturated Porous Media

Zhao

Gao

et al. 2017

Energies

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“…The addition or deposition of different nanoparticles could modify the displacing fluid's effective properties such as viscosity [6][7][8] , interfacial tension 9,10 , and dielectric properties 11 ; change the permeability of the rock matrix 12 ; or alter the rock surface wettability 10,13 . In addition, the size-dependent properties (i.e., optical, magnetic, electrical, thermo-physical and interfacial properties) of nanoparticles can be used as sensitive down-hole sensors to target locations that are inaccessible by conventional methods 5,14,15 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoparticle-Assisted Water-Flooding in Berea Sandstones

Azmi

Raza

et al. 2016

Energy Fuels

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ABSRACT:The use of nanoparticles (NP) to improve reservoir characterisation or to enhance oil recovery (EOR) has recently received intensive interest; however there are still many un-resolved questions. This work reports a systematic study of the effect of rutile TiO 2 nanoparticle-assisted brine flooding. Rutile ellipsoid TiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesised and stabilised by tri-sodium citrate dehydrate for brine flooding of water-wet Berea sandstone cores. Careful characterisation of the rock samples and nanomaterials before and after the flooding was conducted, and the relative contributions to the modified flooding results from the stabiliser and the nanoparticles of different concentrations were examined. The oil recovery performance was evaluated both at break-through (BT) point and at the end of flooding (~3.2 pore volumes). Nanoparticle migration behavior was also investigated in order to understand the potential mechanisms for oil recovery. The results showed that both nanoparticle transport rate and EOR effect were strongly dependent on the particle concentration. The oil recovery efficiency at the BT point was found to increase at low nanoparticle concentrations but decrease at higher values. A maximum 33% increase of the recovery factor was observed at the BT point for a TiO 2 concentration of 20 ppm, but higher nanoparticle concentrations usually had higher ultimate recovery factors. The presence of oil phase was found to accelerate the particle migration though the core. The discussion of various mechanisms suggested that the improvement in the mobility ratio, possible wettability change and log-jamming effect were responsible for the observed phenomena.

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“…2 Polyvinyl alcohol was grafted onto the surface of the nanoparticles and could be sulfonated with a chlorosulfonic acid treatment. It was shown that the lightly sulfonated nanoparticles could be stably dispersed in API brine at 100 °C.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term High-Temperature Stability of Functionalized Graphene Oxide Nanoplatelets in Arab-D and API Brine

Zúñiga

Goods

Cox

et al. 2016

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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ABSTRACT. Partially reduced graphene oxide (prGO) was covalently functionalized with an diazonium containing, imidazolium based, polyzwitterionic polymer to afford a composite material with excellent dispersibility and long-term stability in high salinity brines including standard API and Arab-D found in deep oil reservoirs. When heated at 90 °C, the dispersions remained stable in excess of 140 days. These results suggest the utility of imidazolium-based polymers for brine stabilization as well as the use of diazonium containing polymers for a 'grafting-to' approach to nanocarbon functionalization.

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Highly stable carbon nanoparticles designed for downhole hydrocarbon detection

Abstract: Sulfated polyvinyl alcohol functionalized carbon black, stable under high temperature and high salinity conditions, efficiently carries a hydrophobic compound through a variety of oil-field rock types and releases the compound when the rock contains hydrocarbons.

Cited by 42 publications

References 16 publications

Transport and Deposition of Carbon Nanoparticles in Saturated Porous Media

Transport and Deposition of Carbon Nanoparticles in Saturated Porous Media

Nanoparticle-Assisted Water-Flooding in Berea Sandstones

Long-Term High-Temperature Stability of Functionalized Graphene Oxide Nanoplatelets in Arab-D and API Brine

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