scholarly journals Three‐Phase Fractional‐Flow Theory of Foam‐Oil Displacement in Porous Media With Multiple Steady States

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (12) ◽  
pp. 10319-10339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinyu Tang ◽  
Pablo Castañeda ◽  
Dan Marchesin ◽  
William R. Rossen
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Steady States ◽  
Multiple Steady States ◽  
Fractional Flow ◽  
Oil Displacement ◽  
Three Phase ◽  
Fractional Flow Theory

scholarly journals Application of fractional flow theory to foams in porous media

2007 ◽  
Vol 57 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 152-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z.F. Dholkawala ◽  
H.K. Sarma ◽  
S.I. Kam
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Fractional Flow ◽  
Fractional Flow Theory

The Application of Fractional Flow Theory to Enhanced Oil Recovery

1980 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. 191-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Pope
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Gas Flow ◽  
Local Equilibrium ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Simple Extension ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Constant Composition ◽  
Fractional Flow ◽  
Continuous Injection ◽  
Fractional Flow Theory

Introduction Fractional flow theory has been applied by various authors to waterflooding, polymer flooding, carbonated waterflooding, alcohol flooding, miscible flooding, steamflooding, and various types of surfactant flooding. Many of the assumptions made by these authors are the same and are necessary for obtaining simple analytical or graphical solutions to the continuity equations. Typically, the major assumptions, which are sometimes not stated explicitly, are:one dimensional flow in a homogeneous, isotropic, isothermal porous medium,at most, two phases are flowing,at most, three components are flowing,local equilibrium exists,the fluids are incompressible,for sorbing components, the adsorption isotherm depends only on one component and has negative curvature,dispersion is negligible,gravity and capillarity are negligible,no fingering occurs,Darcy's law applies,the initial distribution of fluids is uniform, anda continuous injection of constant composition is injected, starting at time zero. Several of these assumptions are relaxed easily. One of the most useful to relax is Assumption 12, continuous injection. The principles of chromatography can be applied to analyze the more interesting case of injecting one or more slugs. Most of these processes require slug injection of chemical or solvent to be economical. In fact, a lower bound on the slug size necessary to prevent slug breakdown can be obtained from a simple extension of fractional flow theory. In this and other extensions the common new feature is the need to evaluate more than one characteristic velocity. A second example of this is the extension of fractional flow theory from simultaneous immiscible two-phase flow (the classical Buckley-Leverett waterflood problem) to simultaneous immiscible three-phase flow (the classical oil/water/gas flow problem). A third example is the extension to nonisothermal cases. Here we need to consider the energy balance, mass balance, and velocity of a front of constant temperature. A fourth example is when one or more components are partitioning between phases. In all cases, mathematically, the extension is analogous to the generalization from the one-component adsorption problems (or two-component ion exchange problems with a stoichiometric constraint) to multicomponent sorption problems. The latter theory has been worked out in a very general way for many component systems using the concept of coherence. Pope et al. recently have applied this theory to reservoir engineering involving sorption problems. SPEJ P. 191＾

Applying Fractional-Flow Theory Under the Loss of Miscibility

SPE Journal ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. 661-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rouzbeh Ghanbarnezhad-Moghanloo ◽  
Larry W. Lake
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Correlation Length ◽  
Linear Growth ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Mixing Zone ◽  
Fractional Flow ◽  
Water Alternating Gas ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
First Contact ◽  
Fractional Flow Theory

Summary This paper examines the limits of the Walsh and Lake (WL) method for predicting the displacement performance of solvent flood when miscibility is not achieved. Despite extensive research on the applications of fractional-flow theory, the prediction of flow performance under the loss of miscibility has not been investigated thoroughly. We introduce the idea of an analogous first-contact miscible (FCM) flood to study miscibly degraded simultaneous water and gas (SWAG) displacements using the WL method. Furthermore, numerical simulation is used to validate the WL solution on one oil/solvent pair. In the simulations, the loss of miscibility (degradation) is attributed to either flow-associated dispersion or insufficient pressure to develop the miscibility. 1D SWAG injection simulations suggest that results of the WL method and the simulations are consistent when dispersion is limited. For the 2D displacements, the predicted optimal water-alternating-gas (WAG) ratio is accurate when the permeable medium is fairly homogeneous with a limited crossflow or is heterogeneous with a large lateral correlation length (the same size or greater than the interwell spacing). The results suggest that the accuracy of the WL method improves as crossflow is reduced. In addition, linear growth of the mixing zone with time is observed in cases for which the predicted optimal WAG ratio is consistent with the simulation results. Hence, we conclude that the WL solution is accurate when the mixing zone grows linearly with time.

Fractional-Flow Theory of Foam Displacements With Oil

SPE Journal ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 260-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.. Ashoori ◽  
T.L.M.. L.M. van der Heijden ◽  
W.R.. R. Rossen
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
High Water ◽  
High Water Content ◽  
Fractional Flow ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Water Fraction ◽  
Speed Of Propagation ◽  
First Contact ◽  
Fractional Flow Theory

Summary Fractional-flow theory provides key insights into complex foam enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) displacements and acts as a benchmark for foam simulators. In some cases with mobile oil present, the process can be represented as a two-phase displacement. We examine three such cases. A first-contact-miscible (FCM) gasflood with foam injection includes a chemical shock defining the surfactant front and a miscible shock defining the gas front. The optimal water fraction for the foam, that which gives the fastest oil recovery in 1D, maintains the gas front slightly ahead of the foam (surfactant) front. The success of a foam process with FCM CO2 and surfactant dissolved in the (supercritical) CO2 depends on the strength of foam at very low water fractional flow, such as for a surfactant- alternating-gas (SAG) process with surfactant dissolved in water. The speed of propagation of the foam front depends on surfactant adsorption on rock and on the partitioning of surfactant between water and CO2 but is always less than the velocity of the foam front in a SAG flood with surfactant ahead of the gas. A foam with surfactant that partitions preferentially into water rather than into CO2 would propagate slowly, regardless of the surfactant's absolute solubility or the level of adsorption on rock. An aqueous surfactant preflush can speed the advance of foam, however. An idealized model of a surfactant flood pushed by foam suggests that it is best to inject a relatively high water content into the foam to ensure that the gas front remains behind the surfactant front as the flood proceeds. Any gas that passes ahead of the surfactant front would finger through the oil and be wasted. We present simulations to verify the solutions obtained with fractional-flow methods and illustrate the challenges of accurate simulation of these processes.

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