Wettability alteration and improved oil recovery by spontaneous imbibition of seawater into chalk: Impact of the potential determining ions Ca2+, Mg2+, and SO42−

Zhang, Peimao; Tweheyo, Medad T.; Austad, Tor

doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2006.12.058

Cited by 703 publications

(677 citation statements)

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“…Calcite immersed in water is both a cation-and anion-exchange mineral. Because all aqueous ionic species potentially exchange, there is no one potentialor charge-determining ion (Somasundaran and Agar 1967;Thompson and Pownall 1989;Pierre et al 1990;Zhang and Austad 2006;Zhang et al 2007a). Because the proclivity for exchange is not the same for all aqueous ions, a nonzero surface-charge density, r b , arises at the b-plane or inner Helmholtz plane (Grahame 1947;Newman and Thomas-Alyea 2004;Berg 2010).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

et al. 2017

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SummaryLow-salinity waterflooding (LSW) is ineffective when reservoir rock is strongly water-wet or when crude oil is not asphaltenic. Success of LSW relies heavily on the ability of injected brine to alter surface chemistry of reservoir crude-oil brine/rock (COBR) interfaces. Implementation of LSW in carbonate reservoirs is especially challenging because of high reservoir-brine salinity and, more importantly, because of high reactivity of the rock minerals. Both features complicate understanding of the COBR surface chemistries pertinent to successful LSW. Here, we tackle the complex physicochemical processes in chemically active carbonates flooded with diluted brine that is saturated with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and possibly supplemented with additional ionic species, such as sulfates or phosphates.When waterflooding carbonate reservoirs, rock equilibrates with the injected brine over short distances. Injected-brine ion speciation is shifted substantially in the presence of reactive carbonate rock. Our new calculations demonstrate that rock-equilibrated aqueous pH is slightly alkaline quite independent of injected-brine pH. We establish, for the first time, that CO 2 content of a carbonate reservoir, originating from CO 2 -rich crude oil and gas, plays a dominant role in setting aqueous pH and rock-surface speciation.A simple ion-complexing model predicts the calcite-surface charge as a function of composition of reservoir brine. The surface charge of calcite may be positive or negative, depending on speciation of reservoir brine in contact with the calcite. There is no single point of zero charge; all dissolved aqueous species are charge determining. Rock-equilibrated aqueous composition controls the calcitesurface ion-exchange behavior, not the injected-brine composition. At high ionic strength, the electrical double layer collapses and is no longer diffuse. All surface charges are located directly in the inner and outer Helmholtz planes.Our evaluation of calcite bulk and surface equilibria draws several important inferences about the proposed LSW oil-recovery mechanisms. Diffuse double-layer expansion (DLE) is impossible for brine ionic strength greater than 0.1 molar. Because of rapid rock/brine equilibration, the dissolution mechanism for releasing adhered oil is eliminated. Also, fines mobilization and concomitant oil release cannot occur because there are few loose fines and clays in a majority of carbonates. LSW cannot be a low-interfacial-tension alkaline flood because carbonate dissolution exhausts all injected base near the wellbore and lowers pH to that set by the rock and by formation CO 2 . In spite of diffuse double-layer collapse in carbonate reservoirs, surface ion-exchange oil release remains feasible, but unproved.Introduction LSW refers to improved oil recovery achieved by waterflooding a reservoir with brine of lower salinity than that of the field brine. The process is alluring because of simplicity, favorable economics, and large potential. In some applications, seawater is inj...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Austad and coworkers, however, showed a positive response of carbonate rocks to LSW (Zhang and Austad 2006;Strand et al 2006;Zhang et al 2007a;Rezaeidoust et al 2009;Fathi et al 2010;Puntervold et al 2015). These authors also promulgated a version of MIE as an LSW oil-recovery mechanism.…”

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confidence: 99%

Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

et al. 2017

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“…A naturalbased surfactant, which is low cost and environmental safety, was introduced to alter the wettability of carbonate rocks by Ahmadi et al (2015). Zhang et al (2007) found that the seawater was another important injection fluid to improve oil recovery from fractured carbonate reservoirs. They supposed that three determining ions: Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and SO 2+ 4 , have a significant effect on the wettability alteration of chalks from oil-wet to water-wet.…”

Section: Wettability Alteration For Enhanced Oil Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical review on fundamental mechanisms of spontaneous imbibition and the impact of boundary condition, fluid viscosity and wettability

Meng

Liu

Wang

2017

Adv. Geo-Energ. Res.

114

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Spontaneous imbibition (SI) is one of the primary mechanisms of oil production from matrix system in fractured reservoirs. The main driving force for SI is capillary pressure. Researches relating to SI are moving fast. In the past few years, amount of literature on the development of SI with respect to many variables, such as mechanism of imbibition, scaling of imbibition data and wettability of matrix blocks. In this review, we first introduced the fundamental physics mechanism of SI through capillary tube models and micromodels. Then both conventional and more novel experimental methods of measuring oil production are discussed thoughtfully. This is followed by reviewing the oil production performance under various boundary conditions and the characteristic length in scaling equations that have been used to account for different cores shape and boundary conditions. The effect of fluid viscosity on the rate of oil production and final oil recovery as well as the development of viscosity term in the scaling equation are reported. The commonly used methods to quantitatively evaluate the wettability of cores and the SI under mix-and oil-wet conditions are introduced. And last but not least, the methods and mechanism of wettability alteration for enhanced oil recovery in mix-or oil-wet fractured reservoirs are presented.Keywords: Spontaneous imbibition, fractured reservoirs, boundary condition, viscosity ratio, wettability.Citation: Meng, Q., Liu, H., Wang, J. A critical review on fundamental mechanisms of spontaneous imbibition and the impact of boundary condition, fluid viscosity and wettability.

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“…A solution plotted in a coordinates ζ 1 , ζ 2 phase plane is called a trajectory [26] of the system defined by Equation (36). The phase portrait is the variety of all trajectories [26].…”

Section: The Phase Portrait Of Ayla For a Cylindrical Surfacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A cycle describes a wave-like surface. Figure 5 displays the phase portrait of the system described by Equation (36). The arrows show the vector field defined by the right-hand side.…”

Section: The Phase Portrait Of Ayla For a Cylindrical Surfacementioning

confidence: 99%

A Variational Model of Disjoining Pressure: Liquid Film on a Nonplanar Surface

Silin

Virnovsky

2009

Transp Porous Med

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ABSTRACT. Variational methods have been successfully used in modelling thin liquid films in numerous theoretical studies of wettability. In this paper, the variational model of the disjoining pressure is extended to the general case of a two-dimensional solid surface. The Helmgoltz free energy functional depends both on the disjoining pressure isotherm and the shape of the solid surface. The augmented Young-Laplace equation (AYLE) is a nonlinear second-order partial differential equation. A number of solutions describing wetting films on spherical grains have been obtained. In the case of cylindrical films, the phase portrait technique describes the entire variety of mathematically feasible solutions. It turns out that a periodic solution, which would describe wave-like wetting films, does not satisfy the Jacobi's condition of the classical calculus of variations. Therefore, such a solution is nonphysical. The roughness of the solid surface significantly affects liquid film stability. AYLE solutions suggest that film rupture is more likely at a location where the pore-wall surface is most exposed into the pore space and the curvature is positive.

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Wettability alteration and improved oil recovery by spontaneous imbibition of seawater into chalk: Impact of the potential determining ions Ca2+, Mg2+, and SO42−

Cited by 703 publications

References 10 publications

Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

A critical review on fundamental mechanisms of spontaneous imbibition and the impact of boundary condition, fluid viscosity and wettability

A Variational Model of Disjoining Pressure: Liquid Film on a Nonplanar Surface

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