Investigation Of Crude-Oil/Mineral Interactions: Factors Influencing Wettability Alteration

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (01) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Wolcott ◽  
F.R. Groves ◽  
D.E. Trujillo ◽  
H.G. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Factors Influencing

Effect and Mechanism of CO2 Electrochemical Reduction for CCUS-EOR

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rukaun Chai ◽  
Yuetian Liu ◽  
Qianjun Liu ◽  
Xuan He ◽  
Pingtian Fan
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Electrochemical Reduction ◽  
1H Nmr ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Co2 Sequestration ◽  
Sno2 Nanoparticles ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Electrochemical Conversion

Abstract Unconventional reservoir plays an increasingly important role in the world energy system, but its recovery is always quite low. Therefore, the economic and effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology is urgently required. Moreover, with the aggravation of greenhouse effect, carbon neutrality has become the human consensus. How to sequestrate CO2 more economically and effectively has aroused wide concerns. Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS)-EOR is a win-win technology, which can not only enhance oil recovery but also increase CO2 sequestration efficiency. However, current CCUS-EOR technologies usually face serious gas channeling which finally result in the poor performance on both EOR and CCUS. This study introduced CO2 electrochemical conversion into CCUS-EOR, which successively combines CO2 electrochemical reduction and crude oil electrocatalytic cracking both achieves EOR and CCUS. In this study, multiscale experiments were conducted to study the effect and mechanism of CO2 electrochemical reduction for CCUS-EOR. Firstly, the catalyst and catalytic electrode were synthetized and then were characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) & energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Then, electrolysis experiment & liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) experiments were implemented to study the mechanism of CO2 electrochemical reduction. And electrolysis experiment & gas chromatography (GC) & viscosity & density experiments were used to investigate the mechanism of crude oil electrocatalytic cracking. Finally, contact angle and coreflooding experiments were respectively conducted to study the effect of the proposed technology on wettability and CCUS-EOR. SEM & EDS & XPS results confirmed that the high pure SnO2 nanoparticles with the hierarchical, porous structure, and the large surface area were synthetized. Electrolysis & 1H NMR experiment showed that CO2 has converted into formate with the catalysis of SnO2 nanoparticles. Electrolysis & GC & Density & Viscosity experiments indicated that the crude oil was electrocatalytically cracked into the light components (<C20) from the heavy components (C21∼C37). As voltage increases from 2.0V to 7.0V, the intensity of CO2 electrocchemical reduction and crude oil electrocatalytic cracking enhances to maximum at 3.5V (i.e., formate concentration reaches 6.45mmol/L and carbon peak decreases from C17 to C15) and then weakens. Contact angle results indicated that CO2 electrochemical reduction and crude oil electocatalytic cracking work jointly to promote wettability alteration. Thereof, CO2 electrochemical reduction effect is dominant. Coreflooding results indicated that CO2 electrochemical reduction technology has great potential on EOR and CCUS. With the SnO2 catalytic electrode at optimal voltage (3.5V), the additional recovery reaches 9.2% and CO2 sequestration efficiency is as high as 72.07%. This paper introduced CO2 electrochemical conversion into CCUS-EOR, which successfully combines CO2 electrochemical reduction and crude oil electrocatalytic cracking into one technology. It shows great potential on CCUS-EOR and more studies are required to reveal its in-depth mechanisms.

Interfacial Viscoelasticity of Crude Oil/Brine: An Alternative Enhanced-Oil-Recovery Mechanism in Smart Waterflooding

SPE Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (03) ◽  
pp. 803-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrnoosh Moradi Bidhendi ◽  
Griselda Garcia-Olvera ◽  
Brendon Morin ◽  
John S. Oakey ◽  
Vladimir Alvarado
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Water Chemistry ◽  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Interaction Mechanism ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Injection Water

Summary Injection of water with a designed chemistry has been proposed as a novel enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) method, commonly referred to as low-salinity (LS) or smart waterflooding, among other labels. The multiple names encompass a family of EOR methods that rely on modifying injection-water chemistry to increase oil recovery. Despite successful laboratory experiments and field trials, underlying EOR mechanisms remain controversial and poorly understood. At present, the vast majority of the proposed mechanisms rely on rock/fluid interactions. In this work, we propose an alternative fluid/fluid interaction mechanism (i.e., an increase in crude-oil/water interfacial viscoelasticity upon injection of designed brine as a suppressor of oil trapping by snap-off). A crude oil from Wyoming was selected for its known interfacial responsiveness to water chemistry. Brines were prepared with analytic-grade salts to test the effect of specific anions and cations. The brines’ ionic strengths were modified by dilution with deionized water to the desired salinity. A battery of experiments was performed to show a link between dynamic interfacial viscoelasticity and recovery. Experiments include double-wall ring interfacial rheometry, direct visualization on microfluidic devices, and coreflooding experiments in Berea sandstone cores. Interfacial rheological results show that interfacial viscoelasticity generally increases as brine salinity is decreased, regardless of which cations and anions are present in brine. However, the rate of elasticity buildup and the plateau value depend on specific ions available in solution. Snap-off analysis in a microfluidic device, consisting of a flow-focusing geometry, demonstrates that increased viscoelasticity suppresses interfacial pinch-off, and sustains a more continuous oil phase. This effect was examined in coreflooding experiments with sodium sulfate brines. Corefloods were designed to limit wettability alteration by maintaining a low temperature (25°C) and short aging times. Geochemical analysis provided information on in-situ water chemistry. Oil-recovery and pressure responses were shown to directly correlate with interfacial elasticity [i.e., recovery factor (RF) is consistently greater the larger the induced interfacial viscoelasticity for the system examined in this paper]. Our results demonstrate that a largely overlooked interfacial effect of engineered waterflooding can serve as an alternative and more complete explanation of LS or engineered waterflooding recovery. This new mechanism offers a direction to design water chemistry for optimized waterflooding recovery in engineered water-chemistry processes, and opens a new route to design EOR methods.

scholarly journals Design and formulation of surfactant stabilized O/W emulsion for application in enhanced oil recovery: effect of pH, salinity and temperature

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Narendra Kumar ◽  
Saif Ali ◽  
Amit Kumar ◽  
Ajay Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Experimental Model ◽  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Droplet Size ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sodium Dodecyl ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Reservoir Conditions

Mobilization of crude oil from the subsurface porous media by emulsion injection is one of the Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (C-EOR) techniques. However, deterioration of emulsion by phase separation under harsh reservoir conditions like high salinity, acidic or alkaline nature and high temperature pose a challenge for the emulsion to be a successful EOR agent. Present study aims at formulation of Oil-in-Water (O/W) emulsion stabilized by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) using the optimum values of independent variables – salinity, pH and temperature. The influence of above parameters on the physiochemical properties of the emulsion such as average droplet size, zeta (ζ) potential, conductivity and rheological properties were investigated to optimize the properties. The influence of complex interactions of independent variables on emulsion characteristics were premeditated by experimental model obtained by Taguchi Orthogonal Array (TOA) method. Accuracy and significance of the experimental model was verified using Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA). Results indicated that the experimental models were significantly (p < 0.05) fitted with main influence of salinity (making it a critical variable) followed by its interactions with pH and temperature for all the responses studied for the emulsion properties. No significant difference between the predicted and experimental response values of emulsion ensured the adequacy of the experimental model. Formulated optimized emulsion manifested good stability with 2417.73 nm droplet size, −72.52 mV ζ-potential and a stable rheological (viscosity and viscoelastic) behavior at extensive temperature range. Ultralow Interfacial Tension (IFT) value of 2.22E-05 mN/m was obtained at the interface of crude oil and the emulsion. A favorable wettability alteration of rock from intermediate-wet to water-wet was revealed by contact angle measurement and an enhanced emulsification behavior with crude oil by miscibility test. A tertiary recovery of 21.03% of Original Oil In Place (OOIP) was obtained on sandstone core by optimized emulsion injection. Therefore, performance assessment of optimized emulsion under reservoir conditions confirms its capability as an effective oil-displacing agent.

Wettability Alteration and Foam Mobility Control in a Layered, 2D Heterogeneous Sandpack

SPE Journal ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (04) ◽  
pp. 1207-1220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Li ◽  
George J. Hirasaki ◽  
Clarence A. Miller ◽  
Shehadeh K. Masalmeh
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Weight Ratio ◽  
Mobility Control ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Viscous Force ◽  
Layered System ◽  
Low Permeability ◽  
Foaming Agent ◽  
Original Oil In Place

Summary In a layered, 2D heterogeneous sandpack with a 19:1 permeability contrast that was preferentially oil-wet, the recovery by waterflood was only 49.1% of original oil in place (OOIP) because of injected water flowing through the high-permeability zone, leaving the low-permeability zone unswept. To enhance oil recovery, an anionic surfactant blend (NI) was injected that altered the wettability and lowered the interfacial tension (IFT). Once IFT was reduced to ultralow values, the adverse effect of capillarity retaining oil was eliminated. Gravity-driven vertical countercurrent flow then exchanged fluids between high- and low-permeability zones during a 42-day system shut-in. Cumulative recovery after a subsequent foam flood was 94.6% OOIP, even though foam strength was weak. Recovery with chemical flood (incremental recovered oil/waterflood remaining oil) was 89.4%. An alternative method is to apply foam mobility control as a robust viscous-force-dominant process with no initial surfactant injection and shut-in. The light crude oil studied in this paper was extremely detrimental to foam generation. However, the addition of lauryl betaine to NI (NIB) at a weight ratio of 1:2 (NI:lauryl betaine) made the new blend a good foaming agent with and without the presence of the crude oil. NIB by itself as an IFT-reducing and foaming agent is shown to be effective in various secondary and tertiary alkaline/surfactant/foam (ASF) processes in water-wet 1D homogeneous sandpacks and in an oil-wet heterogeneous layered system with a 34:1 permeability ratio.

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