Static and Dynamic Performance of Wet Foam and Polymer-Enhanced Foam in the Presence of Heavy Oil

Telmadarreie, Ali; Trivedi, Japan

doi:10.3390/colloids2030038

Cited by 36 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…In freshly generated foam, the lamellae between two foam bubbles are thick, but the film starts thinning as liquid drains out of the lamella due to capillary pressure and gravity. The foam stability in presence of a different antifoaming agent such as alcohol and oil in the reservoir is one of the major challenges in the utilization of foam in EOR and fracturing [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Approach to Stabilize Foam Using Fluorinated Surfactants

Kamal

2019

Energies

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Selection of surfactants for enhanced oil recovery and other upstream applications is a challenging task. For enhanced oil recovery applications, a surfactant should be thermally stable, compatible with reservoir brine, and have lower adsorption on reservoir rock, have high foamability and foam stability, and should be economically viable. Foam improves the oil recovery by increasing the viscosity of the displacing fluid and by reducing the capillary forces due to a reduction in interfacial tension. In this work, foamability and foam stability of two different surfactants were evaluated using a dynamic foam analyzer. These surfactants were fluorinated zwitterionic, and hydrocarbon zwitterionic surfactants. The effect of various parameters such as surfactant type and structure, temperature, salinity, and type of injected gas was investigated on foamability and foam stability. The foamability was assessed using the volume of foam produced by injecting a constant volume of gas and foam stability was determined by half-life time. The maximum foam generation was obtained using hydrocarbon zwitterionic surfactant. However, the foam generated using fluorinated zwitterionic surfactant was more stable. A mixture of zwitterionic fluorinated and hydrocarbon fluorinated surfactant showed better foam generation and foam stability. The foam generated using CO2 has less stability compared to the foam generated using air injection. Presence of salts increases the foam stability and foam generation. At high temperature, the foamability of the surfactants increased. However, the foam stability was reduced at high temperature for all type of surfactants. This study helps in optimizing the surfactant formulations consisting of a fluorinated and hydrocarbon zwitterionic surfactant for foam injections.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Approach to Stabilize Foam Using Fluorinated Surfactants

Kamal

2019

Energies

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“…Some researchers have begun investigating methods to improve mobility control with AS EOR. Foam and polymer-foam EOR methods have been of interest due to the rheological properties of foam that promote mobility control 23,24 . The "smart rheology" of foam results in improved mobility control despite extreme permeability and/or viscosity ratios [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] .…”

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confidence: 99%

A systematic approach to alkaline-surfactant-foam flooding of heavy oil: microfluidic assessment with a novel phase-behavior viscosity map

Vavra

Puerto

Biswal

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The apparent viscosity of viscous heavy oil emulsions in water can be less than that of the bulk oil. Microfluidic flooding experiments were conducted to evaluate how alkali-surfactant-foam enhanced oil recovery (ASF EOR) of heavy oil is affected by emulsion formation. A novel phase-behavior viscosity map—a plot of added salinity vs. soap fraction combining phase behavior and bulk apparent viscosity information—is proposed as a rapid and convenient method for identifying suitable injection compositions. The characteristic soap fraction, , is shown to be an effective benchmark for relating information from the phase-viscosity map to expected ASF flood test performance in micromodels. Characteristically more hydrophilic cases were found to be favorable for recovering oil, despite greater interfacial tensions, due to wettability alteration towards water-wet conditions and the formation of low apparent-viscosity oil-in-water (O/W) macroemulsions. Wettability alteration and bubble-oil pinch-off were identified as contributing mechanisms to the formation of these macroemulsions. Conversely, characteristically less hydrophilic cases were accompanied by a large increase in apparent viscosity due to the formation of water-in-oil (W/O) macroemulsions.

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“…In experiments performed on the sandpack, gas and foaming solution were alternatively injected, and foam/PEF was generated in situ without using any foam generator. The details of the experimental procedure are written elsewhere [36].…”

Section: Flow In Sandpack (Unconsolidated Porous Medium)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, no back pressure was used in the sandpack test. The details of the sandpack setup are explained elsewhere [36].…”

Section: Flow In Sandpack (Unconsolidated Porous Medium)mentioning

confidence: 99%

CO2 Foam and CO2 Polymer Enhanced Foam for Heavy Oil Recovery and CO2 Storage

Telmadarreie

Trivedi

2020

Energies

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Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from heavy oil reservoirs is challenging. High oil viscosity, high mobility ratio, inadequate sweep, and reservoir heterogeneity adds more challenges and severe difficulties during any EOR method. Foam injection showed potential as an EOR method for challenging and heterogeneous reservoirs containing light oil. However, the foams and especially polymer enhanced foams (PEF) for heavy oil recovery have been less studied. This study aims to evaluate the performance of CO2 foam and CO2 PEF for heavy oil recovery and CO2 storage by analyzing flow through porous media pressure profile, oil recovery, and CO2 gas production. Foam bulk stability tests showed higher stability of PEF compared to that of surfactant-based foam both in the absence and presence of heavy crude oil. The addition of polymer to surfactant-based foam significantly improved its dynamic stability during foam flow experiments. CO2 PEF propagated faster with higher apparent viscosity and resulted in more oil recovery compared to that of CO2 foam injection. The visual observation of glass column demonstrated stable frontal displacement and higher sweep efficiency of PEF compared to that of conventional foam. In the fractured rock sample, additional heavy oil recovery was obtained by liquid diversion into the matrix area rather than gas diversion. Aside from oil production, the higher stability of PEF resulted in more gas storage compared to conventional foam. This study shows that CO2 PEF could significantly improve heavy oil recovery and CO2 storage.

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Static and Dynamic Performance of Wet Foam and Polymer-Enhanced Foam in the Presence of Heavy Oil

Cited by 36 publications

References 39 publications

A Novel Approach to Stabilize Foam Using Fluorinated Surfactants

A Novel Approach to Stabilize Foam Using Fluorinated Surfactants

A systematic approach to alkaline-surfactant-foam flooding of heavy oil: microfluidic assessment with a novel phase-behavior viscosity map

CO2 Foam and CO2 Polymer Enhanced Foam for Heavy Oil Recovery and CO2 Storage

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