Simulation of Silica Nanoparticle Flooding for Enhancing Oil Recovery

Safari, Mehdi; Golsefatan, Alireza; Rezaei, Ali; Jamialahmadi, M.

doi:10.1080/10916466.2014.945597

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Between these two conditions means a partial coverage of the rock's surface (0 < a t,i, j =S v < 1), adopting a linear interpolation between the extreme cases to calculate the relative permeability modification (Eq. (39)) [71,72,78,79,85]:…”

Section: Change In Absolute Porosity and Porositymentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Modeling of Nanotechnology-Boosted Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods

Druetta¹

2020

Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

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Since it was theorized more than 50 years ago, nanotechnology has become the perfect boost for existing old technologies. The unique properties exhibited by materials at these scales have a potential to improve the performance of mature oil fields along with enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. Regarding polymer flooding, the influence of the (macro) molecules' architecture on the fluid properties has been lately stressed. This chapter presents the numerical simulation of the combination of both agents in a single, combined recovery process. The presence of the nanoparticles affects the rheological behavior and the rock's wettability, increasing the organic phase mobility. Undesirable effects such as (nano) particle aggregation and sedimentation are also considered. The polymer's architecture has a major influence on the recovery process, improving the rheological and viscoelastic properties. On the other hand, although nanoparticles improve the viscosity as well, its main mechanism is their adsorption onto the rock and wettability modification. This chapter shows the importance of a good polymer characterization for EOR, the potential of nanoparticles acting as a boost of traditional EOR processes, and the vital role CFD techniques play to assess the potential of these agents and the optimization of the recovery strategies.

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Section: Change In Absolute Porosity and Porositymentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Modeling of Nanotechnology-Boosted Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods

Druetta¹

2020

Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

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“…), a linear interpolation between the values above mentioned is adopted according to the following expression [10,13,14,11,72].…”

Section: Change In Absolute Porosity and Porositymentioning

confidence: 99%

Branched polymers and nanoparticles flooding as separate processes for enhanced oil recovery

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Picchioni

2019

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Since it was first theorized more than half-century ago, nanotechnology has proven to be the perfect boost for existing technologies and the oil industry has made use of this avant-garde discipline to upsurge the productivity of mature oilfields. With respect to polymer flooding, recent research has stressed the importance of the (macro) molecules' architecture on the physical properties. This paper presents the numerical simulation of these two agents in standard, not combined, oil recovery processes. The polymer solution viscosity is calculated considering the polymer's architecture, its degradation and the salinity. The nanoparticles affect the carrier-phase viscosity and the rock formation wettability, which modifies the oil mobility. Results evidenced the improved capabilities of branched (i.e. star/comb) polymers with respect to traditional linear ones. The modified architecture improves not only the rheological but also the viscoelastic properties, which ultimately increases the microscopic sweeping efficiency. Nanoparticles increase slightly the carrier phase viscosity, but their main recovery mechanism is their adsorption onto the rock and subsequent wettability modification, reducing the residual oil saturation. Furthermore, it is also important to properly characterize both the particles' average size and also their aggregation rate, since these affect the recovery efficiency. Simulations show the importance of a good characterization of oil recovery agents and their effect on the phases' physical properties as well as the potential of nanoparticles to act as a boost of traditional enhanced recovery processes. Nanotechnology in EORSince Richard Feynman's already famous talk "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" [9], the development and applications of nanotechnology in the industry have not stopped growing. These find today applications in various branches of the oil and gas industry, namely: drilling, completion, exploration and downstream operations. The first general study of migration, adsorption of nanoparticles in porous media was presented by Ju [10,11]. A mathematical and experimental study was performed of a sweeping process in a 1D medium, considering the adsorption and changes in both the porosity and absolute permeability generated by silicon nanoparticles. The model was validated with experimental results and served as the basis for many of the simulators developed thereafter. Following the study of the application of nanoparticles in porous media for EOR processes, El-Amin [12][13][14]

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