Effect of Fluid/Rock Interactions on Physical Character of Tight Sandstone Reservoirs during CO2 Flooding

Structures of pore-throat and permeability alteration caused by precipitation and the dissolution of rock matrix are serious problems during CO2 flooding into reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Experiments were conducted under pressure boost and reduction conditions, which simulate CO2-brine scaling in different parts of the reservoir during CO2 flooding. And experiments on the dissolution and scaling of CO2-brine-rock were carried out. The results show that the pH of brine with CO2 under high pressure is small, and no precipitation is formed, so there is no precipitation generated near the gas injection well. Pressure drops sharply near the production well, CO2 dissolved in the formation fluid escapes in large quantities, pH increases, carbonate precipitates are generated, so inorganic scale is formed near the production well. The increase of permeability of core saturated high scale-forming ions is smaller than that of saturated no scale-forming ions brine after CO2 flooding. The accumulation and attachment of salt crystals were found in some large pores of the core with scale-forming ions water after CO2 flooding. The ratio of medium size pores decreased, while that of large and small pores increases, and the pore radius distribution differentiates toward polarization.

Experimental Study on Pressure Losses in Porous Materials

Recent technological advances in the field of additive manufacturing have made possible to manufacture turbine engine components characterized by controlled permeability in desired areas. These have shown great potential in cooling application such as convective cooling and transpiration cooling and may in the future contribute to an increase of the turbine inlet temperature. This study investigates the effects of the pressure ratio, the thickness of the porous material, and the hatch distance used during manufacturing on the discharge coefficient. Moreover, two different porous structures were tested, and in total, 70 test objects were investigated. Using a scanning electron microscope, it is shown that the porosity and pore radius distribution, which are a result from the used laser power, laser speed, and hatch distance during manufacturing, will characterize the pressure losses in the porous sample. Furthermore, the discharge coefficient increases with increasing pressure ratio, while it decreases with increasing thickness to diameter ratio. The obtained experimental data were used to develop a correlation for the discharge coefficient as a function of the geometrical properties and the pressure ratio.

Experimental Study on Pressure Losses in Porous Materials

Recent technological advances in the field of additive manufacturing have made possible to manufacture turbine engine components characterized by controlled permeability in desired areas. These have shown great potential in cooling application such as convective cooling and transpiration cooling and may in the future contribute to an increase of the turbine inlet temperature. This study investigates the effects of the pressure ratio, the thickness of the porous material and the hatch distance used during manufacturing on the discharge coefficient. Moreover, two different porous structures were tested and in total 70 test objects were investigated. Using a scanning electron microscope, it is shown that the porosity and pore radius distribution, which are a result from the used laser power, laser speed and hatch distance during manufacturing, will characterize the pressure losses in the porous sample. Furthermore, the discharge coefficient increases with increasing pressure ratio, while it decreases with increasing thickness to diameter ratio. The obtained experimental data was used to develop a correlation for the discharge coefficient as a function of the geometrical properties and the pressure ratio.

Platinum Supported Mesoporous Silica Spheres by Optimized Microfluidic Sol-Gel Synthesis Scheme

Droplet based microfluidics is used to perform sol-gel reactions. The chemicals are dispensed, mixed, and pre-processed inside a microfluidic device allowing for long operation times without any clogging. Using this approach and optimizing all reaction and processing parameters we generate mesoporous silica particles with a very high surface area of 820 m2g−1 and a narrow pore radius distribution of around 2.4 nm. To take full advantage of the possibilities offered by this microfluidic synthesis route, we produced platinum supported silica microspheres (as high as 7 mol. %) for heterogeneous catalysis.