scholarly journals Role of divalent ions, temperature, and crude oil during water injection into dolomitic carbonate oil reservoirs

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Fattahi Mehraban ◽  
Shahab Ayatollahi ◽  
Mohammad Sharifi
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Elevated Temperatures ◽  
Angle Measurement ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Surface Charges ◽  
Potential Measurement ◽  
Asphaltene Content

Although wettability alteration has been shown to be the main control mechanism of Low Salinity and Smart Water (LS-SmW) injection, our understanding of the phenomena resulting in wettability changes still remains incomplete. In this study, more attention is given to direct measurement of wettability through contact angle measurement at ambient and elevated temperatures (28 °C and 90 °C) during LS-SmW injection to identify trends in wettability alteration. Zeta potential measurement is utilized as an indirect technique for wettability assessment in rock/brine and oil/brine interfaces in order to validate the contact angle measurements. The results presented here bring a new understanding to the effect of temperature and different ions on the wettability state of dolomite particles during an enhanced oil recovery process. Our observations show that increasing temperature from 28 °C to 90 °C reduces the contact angle of oil droplets from 140 to 41 degrees when Seawater (SW) is injected. Besides, changing crude oil from crude-A (low asphaltene content) to crude-B (high asphaltene content) contributes to more negative surface charges at the oil/brine interface. The results suggest that the sulphate ion (SO42-) is the most effective ion for altering dolomite surface properties, leading to less oil wetness. Our study also shows that wettability alteration at ambient and elevated temperatures during LS-SmW injection can be explained by Electrical Double Layer (EDL) theory.

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.

The Application of Nanoparticles in Enhancing Oil Recovery by Wettability Alteration

2015 ◽  
Vol 1120-1121 ◽  
pp. 369-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Feng Jin ◽  
Yan Ling Wang ◽  
Fei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Solid Surface ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Contact Angle Measurement ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Angle Measurement ◽  
Solid Surfaces ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Spreading Behavior ◽  
Conventional Surfactant

Wettability is one of most important characteristics for governing the flow and distribution of reservoir fluids in the porous media,the wetting and spreading behavior of liquids on the solid surfaces changes if the wettability of solid surface is altered. Recent studies show the spreading behavior of liquids on solid surface can be significantly improved after nanofluid treatment. In order to investigate the influence of wettability alternation on enhancing oil recovery after nanofluid treatment,flushing oil experiment and contact angle measurement were conducted in the laboratory. The first experiment involved flushing crude oil with the nanofluid and conventional surfactants, respectively. In the second case, the contact angles of oil phase in nanofluid (conventional surfactant solutions)-crude oil-slide systems were measured after treating 36 hours. The results indicated that nanofluid can produce a better flushing efficiency compared with that of conventional surfactant, and the contact angles of oil phase increased from 33° to 118° after nanofluid treatment in nanofluid/crude-oil/slide system. The mechanism of enhanced oil recovery of nanofluid is mainly wettability alternation.

Microscale Effects of Polymer on Wettability Alteration in Carbonates

SPE Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 1884-1894
Author(s):  
Zuoli Li ◽  
Subhash Ayirala ◽  
Rubia Mariath ◽  
Abdulkareem AlSofi ◽  
Zhenghe Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Polymer Solutions ◽  
High Salinity ◽  
Adhesion Force ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Injection Water ◽  
Lower Contact

Summary Polymer enhances the volumetric sweep efficiency through the increased viscosity of injection water and subsequently results in enhanced oil recovery. Most of the reported experimental studies focused on only evaluating polymer viscosifying characteristics and their associated significance for achieving adequate mobility control in porous media. The microscale effects of polymer on wettability alteration in carbonates are rarely studied. In this experimental investigation, the wettability of carbonates in the presence of polymer was measured using contact angle tests. In addition, the adhesion force between carbonate and crude oil droplets in polymer solutions was determined using a custom-designed integrated thin-film drainage apparatus equipped with a bimorph sensor. The liberation kinetics of crude oil from carbonate surfaces were also measured by an optical microscope-based liberation cell to understand the wettability alteration effects on oil recovery. All the experiments, except the adhesion force, which was measured at room temperature due to the restriction of bimorph sensor, were conducted at both ambient and elevated temperatures (70°C) using a sulfonated polyacrylamide polymer (SPAM) (at 500 and 700 ppm) in high-salinity injection water. Deionized (DI) water was used as a baseline to provide a representative comparison with the high-salinity brine. The contact angles of crude oil droplets on a carbonate surface were highest in DI water and decreased in brine. The addition of polymer decreased the contact angle further, with higher concentrations of polymer resulting in a lower contact angle. The adhesion force between crude oil and carbonate showed good agreement with contact angle data, and the oil adhesion was smallest on the carbonate surface in the presence of polymer. The crude oil liberation from the carbonate surface by flooding with brine and polymer was found to be more efficient at elevated temperature than at ambient temperature, consistent with lower contact angles measured in these aqueous solutions at high temperature. The equilibrium oil liberation degree with polymer solutions increased by more than two times when the temperature was increased from 23 to 70°C. The higher liberation degree obtained with polymer solutions also correlated well with the lowest adhesion force measured between crude oil and carbonate in the presence of polymer. These consistent results obtained from different experimental techniques indicated that the oil recovery improvements observed with polymer in dynamic liberation tests are not only related to the increase in water viscosity but are also due to favorable changes in wettability as inferred from both contact angle and adhesion force measurements. This experimental study, for the first time, characterized the microscale effects of polymer on wettability alteration and crude oil liberation in carbonates. The favorable effect of polymer on wettability alteration in carbonates revealed from this study has not been reported in the literature, and it can become a novel addition to the existing knowledge.

Effect of Temperature on Surfactant Adsorption in Porous Media

1981 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 218-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor M. Ziegler ◽  
Lyman L. Handy
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Nonionic Surfactant ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Elevated Temperatures ◽  
Steam Injection ◽  
Mineral Dissolution ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Surfactant Adsorption ◽  
Thermal Stabilities

Abstract The effect of temperature on the adsorption of asulfonate surfactant and a nonionic surfactant ontocrushed Berea sandstone was studied by both staticand dynamic techniques. Static experiments were conducted over atemperature range from 25 to 95 degrees C to definetemperature-sensitive rock/surfactant systems and toestablish the shape of the equilibrium isotherm.Dynamic experiments served to reinforce the findingsof the static tests and extended the temperature rangefor sorption to 80 degrees C. This is a typicalsteamflood temperature. A mathematical model thatincorporates the mass transport, thermal degradation, and rate-dependent adsorption of the surfactantrepresented these dynamic results. The model wasused to determine the effect of temperature on the sorption rate constants. Mineral dissolution at elevated temperatures hasbeen found to cause precipitation of the sulfonate.Adsorption of the nonionic surfactant decreased withan increase in temperature at low concentrations, whereas the opposite was true at high concentrations.This has favorable implications for a low-concentration injection scheme. When performingstatic adsorption experiments, care had to be takenbecause of the poor thermal stability of the nonionic surfactant. Introduction Injection of surfactants concurrently with steam intooil-bearing reservoirs has been proposed recentlyto improve the recovery efficiency of the steam-driveprocess. From the behavior of chemical additivespreviously used in steamfloods, it is anticipated thatthe injected surfactant will travel through thatportion of the reservoir being flooded by hot water. Oil recovery can be increased if the surfactanteffectively reduces the residual oil saturation withinthis hot-water zone. For concurrent surfactant/steam injection to be technically attractive, a synergisticeffect between the surfactant and temperature isdesired. In our concept of the process, the surfactant mustmove in the heated portion of the reservoir and beable to function as an effective recovery agent atelevated temperatures for prolonged periods of time.Surfactant screening, therefore, requires thisinformation:surfactant stability under steamfloodconditions,temperature effects on the interfacial tension (IFT) between the reservoir oil and aqueoussurfactant,an evaluation of the effect oftemperature on surfactant flood performance, andthe effect of temperature on surfactant adsorption atthe water/solid interface. Handy et al. reported the thermal stabilities ofseveral classes of surfactants. Hill et al. showed thattemperature can have a dramatic effect in reducingthe IFT between crude oil and an aqueous sulfonatesystem. Handy et al. saw a similar temperatureeffect for a nonionic-surfactant/crude-oil system. Itappears, therefore, that the required synergismbetween temperature and surface activity necessaryfor concurrent surfactant/steam injection exists.Surfactant core floods are required to evaluate theeffect of temperature on oil recovery. Finally, toensure that the surfactant moves in the heatedportion of the reservoir, it is necessary to determinethe effect of temperature on adsorption. SPEJ P. 218^

scholarly journals Mechanism of active silica nanofluids based on interface-regulated effect during spontaneous imbibition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu-Guang Song ◽  
Ming-Wei Zhao ◽  
Cai-Li Dai ◽  
Xin-Ke Wang ◽  
Wen-Jiao Lv
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Interfacial Tension ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Dynamic Contact Angle ◽  
Liquid Interface ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Low Permeability ◽  
Oil Water ◽  
Solid Liquid

AbstractThe ultra-low permeability reservoir is regarded as an important energy source for oil and gas resource development and is attracting more and more attention. In this work, the active silica nanofluids were prepared by modified active silica nanoparticles and surfactant BSSB-12. The dispersion stability tests showed that the hydraulic radius of nanofluids was 58.59 nm and the zeta potential was − 48.39 mV. The active nanofluids can simultaneously regulate liquid–liquid interface and solid–liquid interface. The nanofluids can reduce the oil/water interfacial tension (IFT) from 23.5 to 6.7 mN/m, and the oil/water/solid contact angle was altered from 42° to 145°. The spontaneous imbibition tests showed that the oil recovery of 0.1 wt% active nanofluids was 20.5% and 8.5% higher than that of 3 wt% NaCl solution and 0.1 wt% BSSB-12 solution. Finally, the effects of nanofluids on dynamic contact angle, dynamic interfacial tension and moduli were studied from the adsorption behavior of nanofluids at solid–liquid and liquid–liquid interface. The oil detaching and transporting are completed by synergistic effect of wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. The findings of this study can help in better understanding of active nanofluids for EOR in ultra-low permeability reservoirs.

Effect of 2D Alpha-Zirconium Phosphate Nanosheets in Interfacial Tension Reduction and Wettability Alteration: Implications for Enhanced Oil Recovery

SPE Journal ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Song Qing ◽  
Hong Chen ◽  
Li-juan Han ◽  
Zhongbin Ye ◽  
Yihao Liao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Interfacial Tension ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Zirconium Phosphate ◽  
Contact Angle Measurement ◽  
Angle Measurement ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Tetrabutylammonium Hydroxide ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
2D Nanosheets

Summary α-Zirconium phosphate (α-ZrP) nanocrystals were synthesized by refluxing method and subsequently exfoliated into extremely thin 2D nanosheets by tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH) solution. Dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the size distribution and morphology of α-ZrP nanosheets. Interfacial tension (IFT) and contact angle measurement were conducted by different concentrations of α-ZrP nanosheets solutions. The results displayed that the wettability of porous media surface was altered from oleophilic to hydrophilic and the IFT decreased with the increasing of α-ZrP nanosheets concentrations. A new method was proposed to calculate the Hamaker constant for 2D α-ZrP nanosheets. The calculated results displayed that α-ZrP nanosheets were not easy to agglomerate under experimental environment and when the interaction energy barrier increased, the transport amount of α-ZrP nanosheets also increased. Coreflooding tests were also performed with various concentrations and the oil recovery efficiency increased from 33.59 to 51.26% when α-ZrP nanosheets concentrations increased from 50 to 1,000 ppm.

Evaluation of Nanofluids for Selected Malaysian Oilfields with Limited Cores: A Rapid Test Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luky Hendraningrat ◽  
Saeed Majidaie ◽  
Che Abdul Nasser Bakri Bin Che Mamat ◽  
Norzafirah Binti Razali ◽  
Chee Sheau Chien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Glass Plate ◽  
Rapid Test ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
Screening Process ◽  
Recovery Method ◽  
Solid Media ◽  
Research Period

Abstract As an emerging technology, nanoparticle offers advanced benefits to be used as a novel improved oil recovery method. The nanoparticle has a much smaller size than pores of rock that can penetrate deeper in the reservoir and it is easily functionalized to change the wettability of rocks. However, the synthesize and screening process of nanofluids will be a laborious task and need a long-term period and numerous cores at rock-fluid tests. It would be a big issue if the research period is short and native cores are limited or even unavailable. This paper presents a rapid test approach to evaluate nanofluids for a Malaysian oilfield with limited cores. Numerous nanofluids: nanopolymer and nanosurfactants, were evaluated using crude oil from a selected oilfield. Rapid measurement tests are proposed based on a parallel bottom-up approach from contact angle, thermal stability, and interfacial tension (IFT) measurement with at reservoir temperature conditions. Glass plate was initially used as the solid media for optimization of nanofluids concentration. Once this is ascertained then it can be used for further analysis on limited native core slab. Rock mineralogy, fluid rheology, and characterization were also determined. The fluid-fluid and rock-fluid measurements were repeated to ensure consistency of results and to estimate deviation in measurements. Based on a rapid test approach, it was observed that the screening process only took several days instead of months to select suitable nanofluids and glass plates that could be used in the screening process to reduce consuming cores for oilfields with a limited core. A series of glass plate experiment showed consistent results with the core slab. It was observed that dynamic optical contact angle using can achieve steady conditions for approximately half an hour. It was also observed that both the glass plate and replicate core slab show consistency of wettability alteration trend and benefits of multiple runs can observe how big the deviation of measurement. As predicted, all nanofluids can alter the rock wetting behavior. A decreasing contact angle showed that the solid media was rendered to be more water-wet, which implies better oil displacement due to residual oil saturation reduction. Surfactant grafted nanoparticles have given marginal effect on IFT reduction at a certain concentration and achieved steady in less than an hour. These results showed the most potential rapidly for further analysis on coreflooding experiments. The rapid test approach can evaluate and screen nanofluids for detailed coreflooding experiments. This approach readily applies for uncored or limited cores and limited research period.

Geochemical Modeling on Effect of Active Species, Ca2+, Mg2+ and SO2-4 on the Carbonate Rock Surface, in Connection to Wettability Alteration of the Rock

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed ◽  
Vladimir Alvarado
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Surface Charge ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Carbonate Rock ◽  
Carbonate Reservoirs ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Rock Properties ◽  
Carboxyl Group ◽  
Geochemical Model ◽  
Positively Charged

Abstract A large percentage of petroleum reserves are located in carbonate reservoirs, which can be divided into limestone, chalk and dolomite. Roughly the oil recovery from carbonates is below the 30% due to the strong oil wetness, low permeability, abundance of natural fractures, and inhomogeneous rock properties Austad (2013). Injection of adjusted brine chemistry into carbonate reservoirs has been reported to increase oil recovery by 5-30% of the original oil in place in field tests and core flooding experiments. Previous studies have shown that adjusted waterflooding recovery in carbonate reservoirs is dependent on the composition and ionic strength of the injection brine (Morrow et al. 1998; Zhang 2005). Many research works have focused on the role of the brine composition in altering the initial wettability state of carbonate rock, which is usually intermediate- to oil-wet. Crude oils contain carboxyl group, -COOH, that can be found in the resin and asphaltenes fractions. The negatively charged carboxyl group, -COOH bond very strongly with the positively charged, sites on the carbonate surface. The carbonate surface, which is positively charged is believed to adsorb the SO42− that is negatively charged. On the other side cations Ca2+ and Mg2+ bind to the negatively charged carboxylic group and release it from the surface. In this study we use a closed system geochemical model to study the effect of the surface-charge dominant species; Ca2+, Mg2+ and SO42− on the carbonate surfaces at 80 °C. The proposed geochemical interactions can possibly lead to a change in the surface charge, altering wettability of the rock by exchanging ions/cations. Brines with various concentrations of Mg2+ and SO42− were prepared in the lab and contact angle between carbonate substrate and crude oil was measured using a rising/captive bubble tensiometer at 80 °C. The composition of the carbonate system was collected from previous literature review and the composition of adjusted brines was used to build a surface sorption database to develop a geochemical model. This model is focused on identifying the reaction paths and the surface behavior that may represent the real system. Changes in carbonate surface wettability were further evaluated using a series of contact angle experiments. Experimental observations and modeling results are concordant and imply that SO42− ions may alter the wettability of carbonate surface at high temperature.

scholarly journals Experimental and modeling study of wettability alteration through seawater injection in limestone: a case study

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 749-758
Author(s):  
Omolbanin Seiedi ◽  
Mohammad Zahedzadeh ◽  
Emad Roayaei ◽  
Morteza Aminnaji ◽  
Hossein Fazeli
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Contact Angle Measurement ◽  
Angle Measurement ◽  
Carbonate Reservoirs ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Rock Surface ◽  
Indirect Contact ◽  
Molecular Kinetic Theory ◽  
Wet Condition

AbstractWater flooding is widely applied for pressure maintenance or increasing the oil recovery of reservoirs. The heterogeneity and wettability of formation rocks strongly affect the oil recovery efficiency in carbonate reservoirs. During seawater injection in carbonate formations, the interactions between potential seawater ions and the carbonate rock at a high temperature can alter the wettability to a more water-wet condition. This paper studies the wettability of one of the Iranian carbonate reservoirs which has been under Persian Gulf seawater injection for more than 10 years. The wettability of the rock is determined by indirect contact angle measurement using Rise in Core technique. Further, the characterization of the rock surface is evaluated by molecular kinetic theory (MKT) modeling. The data obtained from experiments show that rocks are undergoing neutral wetting after the aging process. While the wettability of low permeable samples changes to be slightly water-wet, the wettability of the samples with higher permeability remains unchanged after soaking in seawater. Experimental data and MKT analysis indicate that wettability alteration of these carbonate rocks through prolonged seawater injection might be insignificant.

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