Microfluidic Study of Enhanced Oil Recovery during Flooding with Polyacrylamide Polymer Solutions

Abstract

A series of experiments have been carried out on the flooding of microfluidic chips simulating a homogeneous porous structure with various displacement fluids. Water and polyacrylamide polymer solutions were used as displacement fluids. Three different polyacrylamides with different properties are considered. The results of a microfluidic study of polymer flooding showed that the displacement efficiency increases significantly with increasing polymer concentration. Thus, when using a 0.1% polymer solution of polyacrylamide grade 2540, a 23% increase in the oil displacement efficiency was obtained compared to water. The study of the effect of various polymers on the efficiency of oil displacement showed that the maximum efficiency of oil displacement, other things being equal, can be achieved using polyacrylamide grade 2540, which has the highest charge density among those considered. Thus, when using polymer 2515 with a charge density of 10%, the oil displacement efficiency increased by 12.5% compared to water, while when using polymer 2540 with a charge density of 30%, the oil displacement efficiency increased by 23.6%.

BSEO─Semiautomatic Method for Determination of Oil Recovery with Nanofluids in Microfluidic Devices

“…Despite the valuable insights that microfluidics provides into EOR, it is important to recognize the existing limitations and challenges in its application. These challenges include the need for standardization and testing protocols and difficulties in scaling up experiments and fully replicating reservoir conditions. ,− Nevertheless, microfluidics remains a promising tool for studying and optimizing enhanced oil recovery techniques as researchers in the petroleum industry persistently explore its use in studying fluid flow behavior in porous media and developing improved models for upscaling findings to the reservoir scale.…”