The Influence of Polymer Flooding on Produced Oily Water: A Review

Abstract

The process of chemical enhanced oil recovery, CEOR, involves the injection of substances, such as polymers, that reach the production well after permeating the reservoir. These products affect the stability of the produced oily water after primary separation, making it harder to break down these oil-inwater emulsions. In an attempt to overcome this problem, researchers have studied the influence of polymers on the stability of oily water and have proposed the use of new equipments and chemical additives. This article reviews the studies of the influence of polymer flooding, the most used CEOR technique, on the stabilization and treatment of produced oily water. It is important to understand the influence of polymers on water treatment to avoid interrupting the production of oil and, more importantly, to prevent environment contamination.

Mechanical and Petrophysical Analysis of Synthetic Sandstone for Enhanced Oil Recovery Applications

“…Recovery processes can be used to increase well production. Primary recovery depends only on reservoir pressure, while secondary recovery involves water and immiscible gas injection (Aguiar & Mansur, 2016). Since, during extraction, two thirds of oil remains inside the reservoir, even after both the primary and secondary recoveries (Lu et al, 2014; Yuan et al, 2015), the use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method becomes necessary to maximize production.…”

Efectos de la irrupción polímero HPAM en procesos deshidratación y clarificación en tecnologías de cEOR en Ecopetrol S.A.

“…Dicha situación hace que el agua producida por cEOR sea tal vez más difícil de tratar que el agua producida durante el recobro primario y secundario (waterflooding). Consecuentemente, esto incidirá directamente en las estrategias de gestión y en la eficiencia de los sistemas existentes de tratamiento de crudo y agua de producción (reducción de la eficiencia en procesos e incluso fallas y daños excesivos en los equipos) [9]. Sumado a las dificultades de procesamiento, está la incertidumbre de las características de los fluidos producidos.…”

Investigation of a new application for cellulose nanocrystals: a study of the enhanced oil recovery potential by use of a green additive

“…HPAM also has some problems due to poor biodegradation properties, making it necessary with post-flooding water treatment, which might be costly, time consuming and poses an environmental threat if it fails (Guo, 2013). There is also some suspicion regarding its breakdown into toxic acrylamide after slow natural degradation, which can cause harm to local ecosystems (Aguiar & Mansur, 2016;Bao et al, 2010).…”