Synthesis and Performance of an Acrylamide Copolymer Containing Nano‐SiO₂ as Enhanced Oil Recovery Chemical

Abstract

A novel copolymer containing nano-SiO2was synthesized by free radical polymerization using acrylamide (AM), acrylic acid (AA), and nano-SiO2functional monomer (NSFM) as raw materials under mild conditions. The AM/AA/NSFM copolymer was characterized by infrared (IR) spectroscopy,1H NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the AM/AA/NSFM copolymer exhibited higher viscosity than the AM/AA copolymer at 500 s−1shear rate (18.6 mPa·s versus 8.7 mPa·s). It was also found that AM/AA/NSFM could achieve up to 43.7% viscosity retention rate at 95°C. Mobility control results indicated that AM/AA/NSFM could establish much higher resistance factor (RF) and residual resistance factor (RRF) than AM/AA under the same conditions (RF: 16.52 versus 12.17, RRF: 3.63 versus 2.59). At last, the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) of AM/AA/NSFM was up to 20.10% by core flooding experiments at 65°C.

A review on applications of nanotechnology in the enhanced oil recovery part B: effects of nanoparticles on flooding

“…Here, a significant decrease in residual oil saturation varying from 2 to 13 % was observed for the three floods, and an increase in recovery Fig. 3 The synthesis of AM/ AA/NSFM [51] Int Nano Lett (2016) 6:1-10 5 factor varying from 0 to 8 % was obtained. The potential for hydrophilic silica nanoparticles as an EOR-agent exists, but it is clear that water-wet reservoirs are not the best target area.…”

A review on applications of nanotechnology in the enhanced oil recovery part A: effects of nanoparticles on interfacial tension

“…Furthermore, PAM and HPAM have poor shear resistance [50][51][52][53]. Polymer molecular chains will be cut off when polymer solution passes through the pump, pipeline, perforation, and porous medium at high speed, so the viscosity of polymer solution will be greatly reduced [53,54].…”

Plenty of Room at the Bottom: Nanotechnology as Solution to an Old Issue in Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…This effect becomes more noticeable in polymer/nanoparticle solutions in which the storage and loss moduli are strongly affected by the nanoparticle concentration. This enhances the viscoelastic properties of the sweeping agent and therefore increases the oil recovery factor [63,64]. The former can be increased by either increasing the nanoparticle concentration, or by modifying the size of the particles [65].…”

“…Figure reproduced from Ref. [63]. AM/AA/NSFM: acrylamide/acrylic acid/nano-SiO 2 functional monomer.…”