scholarly journals Guar Gum-Based Hydrogels as Potent Green Polymers for Enhanced Oil Recovery in High-Salinity Reservoirs

ACS Omega ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (36) ◽  
pp. 23421-23431
Author(s):  
Shimaa. M. Elsaeed ◽  
Elsayed Gamal Zaki ◽  
Walaa A. E. Omar ◽  
Ahmed Ashraf Soliman ◽  
Attia Mahmoud Attia
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1905-1913
Author(s):  
Tagwa A. Musa ◽  
Ahmed F. Ibrahim ◽  
Hisham A. Nasr-El-Din ◽  
Anas. M. Hassan

AbstractChemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are usually used as additives for hydrocarbon production due to its simplicity and relatively reasonable additional production costs. Polymer flooding uses polymer solutions to increase oil recovery by decreasing the water/oil mobility ratio by increasing the viscosity of the displacing water. The commonly used synthetic water-soluble polymer in EOR application is partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM). However, synthetic polymers in general are not attractive because of high cost, environmental concerns, limitation in high temperature, and high-salinity environment. Guar gum is an environmentally friendly natural water-soluble polymer available in large quantities in many countries and widely used in various applications in the oil and gas industry especially in drilling fluids and hydraulic fracturing operations; however, very limited studies investigated on guar as a polymer for EOR and no any study investigated on its uses in high-temperature and high -salinity reservoirs. The objective of this study is to confirm the use of guar gum as a natural polymer for EOR applications in sandstone reservoirs and investigate its applicability for high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs. The study experimentally investigated rheological characteristics of a natural polymer obtained from guar gum with consideration of high temperature (up to 210 °F) and high salinity (up to 20% NaCl) and tested the guar solution as EOR polymer. The results of this study show that the guar solution can be used as an environmentally friendly polymer to enhance oil recovery. Based on the results, it can be concluded that guar gum shows shear-thinning behavior and strongly susceptible to microbial degradation but also shows a very good properties stability in high temperature and salinity, where in low shear rate case, about 100 cp viscosity can be achieved at 210 °F for polymer prepared in deionized water. Guar polymer shows good viscosity in the presence of 20% NaCl where the viscosity is acceptable for temperature less than 190 °F. Also, the flooding experiment shows that the recovery factor can be increased by 16%.


2017 ◽  
Vol 135 (14) ◽  
pp. 46086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingjiao Yuan ◽  
Zhe Liu ◽  
Ruimin Gao ◽  
Guangfa Hu ◽  
Gai Zhang ◽  
...  

SPE Journal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 249-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunshen Chen ◽  
Amro S. Elhag ◽  
Benjamin M. Poon ◽  
Leyu Cui ◽  
Kun Ma ◽  
...  

Summary To improve sweep efficiency for carbon dioxide (CO2) enhanced oil recovery (EOR) up to 120°C in the presence of high-salinity brine (182 g/L NaCl), novel CO2/water (C/W) foams have been formed with surfactants composed of ethoxylated amine headgroups with cocoalkyl tails. These surfactants are switchable from the nonionic (unprotonated amine) state in dry CO2 to cationic (protonated amine) in the presence of an aqueous phase with a pH less than 6. The high hydrophilicity in the protonated cationic state was evident in the high cloudpoint temperature up to 120°C. The high cloud point facilitated the stabilization of lamellae between bubbles in CO2/water foams. In the nonionic form, the surfactant was soluble in CO2 at 120°C and 3,300 psia at a concentration of 0.2% (w/w). C/W foams were produced by injecting the surfactant into either the CO2 phase or the brine phase, which indicated good contact between phases for transport of surfactant to the interface. Solubility of the surfactant in CO2 and a favorable C/W partition coefficient are beneficial for transport of surfactant with CO2-flow pathways in the reservoir to minimize viscous fingering and gravity override. The ethoxylated cocoamine with two ethylene oxide (EO) groups was shown to stabilize C/W foams in a 30-darcy sandpack with NaCl concentrations up to 182 g/L at 120°C and 3,400 psia, and foam qualities from 50 to 95%. The foam produces an apparent viscosity of 6.2 cp in the sandpack and 6.3 cp in a 762-μm-inner-diameter capillary tube (downstream of the sandpack) in contrast with values well below 1 cp without surfactant present. Moreover, the cationic headgroup reduces the adsorption of ethoxylated alkyl amines on calcite, which is also positively charged in the presence of CO2 dissolved in brine. The surfactant partition coefficients (0 to 0.04) favored the water phase over the oil phase, which is beneficial for minimizing losses of surfactant to the oil phase for efficient surfactant usage. Furthermore, the surfactant was used to form C/W foams, without forming stable/viscous oil/water (O/W) emulsions. This selectivity is desirable for mobility control whereby CO2 will have low mobility in regions in which oil is not present and high contact with oil at the displacement front. In summary, the switchable ethoxylated alkyl amine surfactants provide both high cloudpoints in brine and high interfacial activities of ionic surfactants in water for foam generation, as well as significant solubilities in CO2 in the nonionic dry state for surfactant injection.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cai Hongyan ◽  
Fan Jian ◽  
Han Dong ◽  
Fan Zhang ◽  
Youyi Zhu ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan Soleimani ◽  
Noorhana Yahya ◽  
Noor Rasyada Ahmad Latiff ◽  
Hasnah Mohd Zaid ◽  
Birol Demiral ◽  
...  

Research on the application of nanoparticles, specifically magnetic nanoparticles in enhanced oil recovery has been increasing in recent years due to their potential to increase the oil production despite having to interact with reservoirs of high salinity, high pressure and temperature and un-natural pH. Unlike other conventional EOR agents e.g. surfactants and polymers, a harsh environment will cause degradation and failure to operate. Magnetic nanoparticles which are activated by a magnetic field are anticipated to have the ability to travel far into the oil reservoir and assist in the displacement of the trapped oil. In this work, ferromagnetic Co2+xFe2+1-xFe3+2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized for their morphological, structural and magnetic properties. At a composition x = 0.75, this nanomaterial shows its best magnetisation parameters i.e. highest value of saturation magnetization, remanence and coercivity of 65.23 emu/g, 12.18 emu/g and 239.10 Oe, respectively. Subsequently, a dispersion of 0.01 wt% Co2+0.75Fe2+0.25Fe3+2O4 nanoparticles in distilled water was used for core flooding test to validate its feasibility in enhanced oil recovery. In a core flooding test, the effect of electromagnetic waves irradiation to activate the magnetization of Co2+0.75Fe2+0.25Fe3+2O4 nanofluid was also investigated by irradiating a 78 MHz square wave to the porous medium while nanofluid injection was taking place. In conclusion, an almost 20% increment in the recovery of oil was obtained with the application of electromagnetic waves in 2 pore volumes injection of a Co2+0.75Fe2+0.25Fe3+2O4 nanofluid.


2017 ◽  
Vol 890 ◽  
pp. 235-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chitipat Chuaicham ◽  
Kreangkrai Maneeintr

To enhance oil recovery, surfactant flooding is one of the techniques used to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between displacing and displaced phases in order to maximize productivity. Due to high salinity of crude oil in the North of Thailand, surfactant flooding is a suitable choice to perform enhanced oil recovery. The objective of this work is to measure the IFT and observe the effects of parameters such as pressure, temperature, concentration and salinity on IFT reduction. In this study, sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate is used as surfactant to reduce IFT. The results show that the major factor affecting reduction of IFT is surfactant concentration accounting for 98.1%. IFT reduces with the increase of salinity up to 86.3% and up to 9.6% for temperature. However, pressure has less effect on IFT reduction. The results of this work can apply to increase oil production in the oilfield in the North of Thailand.


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