Impact of injection rate on transient oil recovery under mixed-wet conditions: a microfluidic study

Christensen, Magali; Zacarias-Hernandez, Xanat; Tanino, Yukie

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20198904002

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Displacement of one fluid by another within a porous medium is relevant to many processes such as oil and gas recovery from hydrocarbon reservoirs, CO 2 storage in deep saline aquifers, gas transport in fuel cells, nonaqueous phase liquid contaminant transport in groundwater aquifers, and water infiltration into soils. Immiscible displacement encountered in these applications is influenced, at the pore scale, by the properties of the grains (size distribution, roughness, mineralogy) and how they are arranged (pore topology and geometry) [e.g., [1][2][3][4][5], the properties of the fluids (chemical and physical constituents, which in turn alter fluid-fluid-grain contact angle, fluid-fluid interfacial tension, viscosity, and density) [e.g., [6][7][8], the fractional volumes of the fluids initially occupying the pores [e.g., 6,9,10], and the velocity of the fluids [e.g., 11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of grain roughness on residual nonwetting phase cluster size distribution in packed columns of uniform spheres

2020

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We imaged the pore-scale distribution of air and water within packed columns of glass spheres of different textures using x-ray microcomputed tomography after primary drainage and after secondary imbibition. Postimbibition residual air saturation increases with roughness size. Clusters larger than a critical size of about 15 to 40 pores are distributed according to a power law, with exponents ranging from τ = 2.29 ± 0.04 to 3.00 ± 0.13 and displaying a weak negative correlation with roughness size. The largest cluster constitutes 7 to 20% of the total residual gas saturation, with no clear correlation with roughness size. These results imply that activities that enhance grain roughness by, e.g., creating acidic conditions in the subsurface, will promote capillary trapping of nonwetting phases under capillary-dominated conditions. Enhanced trapping, in turn, may be desirable in some engineering applications such as geological CO 2 storage, but detrimental to others such as groundwater remediation and hydrocarbon recovery.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of grain roughness on residual nonwetting phase cluster size distribution in packed columns of uniform spheres

2020

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“…In addition to capillary number and viscosity ratio, wettability effects on fingering patterns were recently investigated as a third dimension for a phase diagram in 2D flow cells (Zhao et al, 2016). The investigated pore-scale geometries have generally been 2D (Lenormand et al, 1988), 2.5D (Christensen et al, 2019), or 3D homogeneous porous matrices (Islam et al, 2014) or a single planar rough fracture (Chen et al, 2017). Whether and to what extent the existence of microfractures, connected or dead-end, can affect unstable flow is not yet well-known.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidic Diagnostics of the Impact of Local Microfracture Connectivity on Hydrocarbon Recovery Following Water Injection

Mehmani

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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Microfractures originate in hydrocarbon reservoirs and groundwater aquifers either in the form of pore‐scale authigenic apertures or secondary openings during well stimulation. Microfractures are often difficult to detect and can act as an invisible impediment when predicting hydrocarbon recovery. We use microfluidics to identify the flow conditions at which microfracture connectivity with macrofractures becomes impactful. The analysis focuses on fluid displacements at unfavorable mobility ratios, which are difficult to capture with high‐order numerical methods. Two configurations of microfracture type with the porous matrix, either dead‐end (only connected to one macrofracture) or connecting two macrofractures, were investigated as case examples for both water and oil‐wet conditions. Our findings confirm that improvements in hydrocarbon recovery are not universal due to the presence of microfractures but rather are a function of capillary number, wettability, and microfracture connectivity. We find that, regardless of wettability, a capillary number threshold for a connected microfractured system exists beyond which the effects of microfractures on recovery, fluid dendrite morphology, and oil ganglia number diminish considerably. However, substantial geometry‐dependent differences in recovery are observed below this threshold. A connected microfracture generally decreases hydrocarbon recovery and suppresses coalescence of viscous fingering dendrites regardless of wettability. In contrast, a dead‐end microfracture causes wettability‐dependent effects with (1) minimal impact on hydrocarbon recovery at water‐wet conditions and (2) both decreasing and increasing recovery effects at oil‐wet conditions. Furthermore, dead‐end microfractures become somewhat impactful to the divergence of viscous dendrites when capillary number increases but are overall ineffective to the trapped ganglia numbers.

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“…If the Ca is small, the invading fluid propagates as thick fingers that follow a tortuous path through the porous medium ("capillary fingering"). The exact (Ca, M) at which the flow transitions from one regime to the other is difficult to predict, as it is a function of many factors, including the pore geometry [11] and hydrophilicity [12,13] of the porous medium. Notwithstanding this, regime boundaries proposed [8] for staggered cylinder arrays are presented in Figure 1 as a guide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Oil Recovery by Polymer Flooding: Direct, Low-Cost Visualization in a Hele–Shaw Cell

Tanino

Syed

2019

Education Sciences

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We designed a hands-on laboratory exercise to demonstrate why injecting an aqueous polymer solution into an oil reservoir (commonly known as "polymer flooding") enhances oil production. Students are split into three groups of two to three. Each group is assigned to a packed Hele-Shaw cell pre-saturated with oil, our laboratory model of an oil reservoir, and is given an aqueous solution of known polymer concentration to inject into the model reservoir to "push" the oil out. At selected intervals, students record the oil produced, take photos of the cell using their smartphones, and demarcate the invading polymer front on an acetate sheet. There is ample time for students to observe the experiments of other groups and compare the different flow patterns that arise from different polymer concentrations. Students share their results with other groups at the end of the session, which require effective data presentation and communication. Both the in-session tasks and data sharing require team work. While this experiment was designed for a course on Enhanced Oil Recovery for final year undergraduate and MSc students in petroleum engineering, it can be readily adapted to courses on groundwater hydrology or subsurface transport by selecting different test fluids.

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Impact of injection rate on transient oil recovery under mixed-wet conditions: a microfluidic study

Cited by 3 publications

References 21 publications

Impact of grain roughness on residual nonwetting phase cluster size distribution in packed columns of uniform spheres

Impact of grain roughness on residual nonwetting phase cluster size distribution in packed columns of uniform spheres

Microfluidic Diagnostics of the Impact of Local Microfracture Connectivity on Hydrocarbon Recovery Following Water Injection

Enhanced Oil Recovery by Polymer Flooding: Direct, Low-Cost Visualization in a Hele–Shaw Cell

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