Phase behavior and interfacial tension evaluation of a newly designed surfactant on heavy oil displacement efficiency; effects of salinity, wettability, and capillary pressure

Dehghan, Ali; Masihi, Mohsen; Ayatollahi, Shahab

doi:10.1016/j.fluid.2015.03.028

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Furthermore, the penetration of the alkaline solution into the crude oil causes the formation of a W/O emulsion, thereby reducing the mobility of the displacing fluids and diverting the injected fluids into the unswept region, resulting in an improvement in the sweep efficiency [34]. A synthetic surfactant is mainly employed to reduce the IFT between O-W by forming a microemulsion with a limited range of concentrations [35]. The combination of alkali and the synthetic surfactant (AS) helps to reduce the IFT between O-W in higher level, thereby remedying the issues of alone alkaline injection, such as generating insufficient IFT reduction due to the lack of the in-situ generated surfactant due to low acid contents in oil [36].…”

Section: Flooding Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

Van

Chon

2016

Energies

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Heavy-oil resources represent a large percentage of global oil and gas reserves, however, owing to the high viscosity, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are critical issues for extracting this type of crude oil from the reservoir. According to the survey data in Oil & Gas Journal, thermal methods are the most widely utilized in EOR projects in heavy oil fields in the US and Canada, and there are not many successful chemical flooding projects for heavy oil reported elsewhere in the world. However, thermal methods such as steam injection might be restricted in cases of thin formations, overlying permafrost, or reservoir depths over 4500 ft, for which chemical flooding becomes a better option for recovering crude oil. Moreover, owing to the considerable fluctuations in the oil price, chemical injection plans should be employed consistently in terms of either technical or economic viewpoints. The numerical studies in this work aim to clarify the predominant chemical injection schemes among the various combinations of chemical agents involving alkali (A), surfactant (S) and polymer (P) for specific heavy-oil reservoir conditions. The feasibilities of all potential injection sequences are evaluated in the pre-evaluation stage in order to select the most efficient injection scheme according to the variation in the oil price which is based on practical market values. Finally, optimization procedures in the post-evaluation stage are carried out for the most economic injection plan by an effective mathematic tool with the purpose of gaining highest Net Present Value (NPV) of the project. In technical terms, the numerical studies confirm the predominant performances of sequences in which alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) solution is injected after the first preflushing water whereby the recovery factor can be higher than 47%. In particular, the oil production performances are improved by injecting a buffering viscous fluid right after the first chemical slug rather than using a water slug in between. The results of the pre-evaluation show that two sequences of the ASP group have the highest NPV corresponding to the dissimilar applied oil prices. In the post-evaluation, the successful use of response surface methodology (RSM) in the estimation and optimization procedures with coefficients of determination R 2 greater than 0.97 shows that the project can possibly gain 4.47 $MM at a mean oil price of 46.5 $/bbl with the field scale of a quarter five-spot pattern. Further, with the novel assumption of normal distribution for the oil price variation, the chemical flooding sequence of concurrent alkali-surfactant-polymer injection with a buffering polymer solution is evaluated as the most feasible scheme owing to the achievement of the highest NPV at the highly possible oil price of 40-55 $/bbl compared to the other scheme.

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Section: Flooding Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

Van

Chon

2016

Energies

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“…In most of the surfactant flooding cases, researchers paid attentions on interfacial tension reduction between crude oil-aqueous phases by application of superior surfactants. Interfacial tension reduction between oleic and aqueous phase is crucial important requirement for chemical flooding [7][8][9]. Newly synthesized surfactants and their applications in enhanced oil recovery by lowing interfacial tension have now attracted the people in chemical flooding research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studies on interfacial tension and contact angle of synthesized surfactant and polymeric from castor oil for enhanced oil recovery

Babu

Pal

Bera

et al. 2015

Applied Surface Science

151

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“…Some of these include the study of formation and separation mechanisms (Kuo and Lee 2010;Fortuny et al 2007;Fingas and Fieldhouse 2014;Martinez-Palou et al 2015), interfacial behaviour (Sjoblom et al 2003;Yarranton et al 2007;Dehghan et al 2015;Schulz et al 2016) and pipeline transportation (Langevin et al 2004;Salager et al 2001;Martinez-Palou et al 2011;Al-Yaari et al 2014;Malkin et al 2017;Kumar and Mahto 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation into the effect of silica nanoparticles on the rheological characteristics of water-in-heavy oil emulsions

2019

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The effect of silica nanoparticles on the rheological characteristics of water-in-heavy oil emulsions has been investigated. Enhanced oil recovery methods for heavy oil production (most especially, thermal fluid injection) usually result in the formation of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion. In reality, the emulsion produced also contains some fine solid mineral particles such as silica, which, depending on its quantity, may alter the viscosity and/or rheological properties of the fluid. A series of binary-component emulsions were separately prepared by dispersing silica nanoparticles [phase fraction, β s , = 0.5%-5.75% (wt/v)] in heavy oil (S/O suspension) and by dispersing water [water cut, θ w = 10%-53% (v/v)] in heavy oil (W/O emulsion). Ternary-component emulsions comprising heavy oil, water droplets and suspended silica nanoparticles (S/W/O) were also prepared with similar ranges of θ w and β s . The viscosity was measured at different shear rates (5.1-1021.4 s −1 ) and temperatures (30-70 °C). Both binary-component and ternary-component emulsion systems were observed to exhibit non-Newtonian shear thinning behaviour. The viscosity of the heavy oil and W/O emulsions increased in the presence of silica nanoparticles. The effect was, however, less significant below β s = 2% (wt/v). Moreover, a generalized correlation has been proposed to predict the viscosity of both binary-component and ternary-component emulsions.

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Phase behavior and interfacial tension evaluation of a newly designed surfactant on heavy oil displacement efficiency; effects of salinity, wettability, and capillary pressure

Cited by 23 publications

References 23 publications

Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

Studies on interfacial tension and contact angle of synthesized surfactant and polymeric from castor oil for enhanced oil recovery

Investigation into the effect of silica nanoparticles on the rheological characteristics of water-in-heavy oil emulsions

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