Dataset Information

Surfactant-Polymer Flooding: Influence of the Injection Scheme.

ABSTRACT: The use of standard enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques allows for the improvement of oilfield performance after waterflooding processes. Chemical EOR methods modify different properties of fluids and/or rock to mobilize the remaining oil. Moreover, combined techniques have been developed to maximize the performance by using the joint properties of the chemical slugs. A new simulator is presented to study a surfactant-polymer flooding, based on a two-phase, five-component system (aqueous and oleous phases with water, petroleum, polymer, surfactant, and salt) for a 2D reservoir model. The physical properties modified by these chemicals are considered as well as the synergy between them. The analysis of the chemical injection strategy is deemed vital for the success of the operations. This plays a major role in the efficiency of the recovery process, including the order and the time gap between each chemical slug injection. As the latter is increased, the flooding tends to behave as two separate processes. Best results are found when both slugs are injected overlapped, with the polymer in first place which improves the sweeping efficiency of the viscous oil. This simulator can be used to study different chemical combinations and their injection procedure to optimize the EOR process.

SUBMITTER: Druetta P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6369668 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Surfactant-Polymer Flooding: Influence of the Injection Scheme.

Druetta Pablo P Picchioni Francesco F

Energy & fuels : an American Chemical Society journal 20181030 12

The use of standard enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques allows for the improvement of oilfield performance after waterflooding processes. Chemical EOR methods modify different properties of fluids and/or rock to mobilize the remaining oil. Moreover, combined techniques have been developed to maximize the performance by using the joint properties of the chemical slugs. A new simulator is presented to study a surfactant-polymer flooding, based on a two-phase, five-component system (aqueous and ...[more]

PMID: 30774190

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Project description:Polymer flooding is one of the most incipient chemical-based enhanced oil recovery process that utilizes the injection of polymer solutions into oil reservoirs. The presence of a polymer in water increases the viscosity of the injected fluid, which upon injection reduces the water-to-oil mobility ratio and the permeability of the porous media, thereby improving oil recovery. The objective of this work is to investigate strategies that would help increase oil recovery. For that purpose, we have studied the effect of injection pressure and increasing polymer concentration on flooding performance. This work emphasizes on the development of a detailed mathematical model describing fluid saturations, pressure, and polymer concentration during the injection experiments and predicts oil recovery. The mathematical model developed for simulations is a black oil model consisting of a two-phase flow (aqueous and oleic) of polymeric solutions in one-dimensional porous media as a function of time and z-coordinate. The mathematical model consisting of heterogeneous, nonlinear, and simultaneous partial differential equations efficiently describes the physical process and consists of various parameters and variables that are involved in our lab-scale process to quantify and analyze them. A dimensionless numerical solution is achieved using the finite difference method. We implement the second-order high-accuracy central and backward finite-divided-difference formula along the z-direction that results in the discretization of the partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations with time as an independent variable. The input parameters such as porosity, permeability, saturation, and pore volume obtained from experimental data by polymer flooding are used in the simulation of the developed mathematical model. The model-predicted and commercial reservoir (CMG)-simulated oil production is in good agreement with experimental oil recoveries with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) in the range of 1.5-2.5 at a maximum constant pressure of 3.44 MPa as well as with temporal variation of the injection pressure between 2.41 and 3.44 MPa.

Project description:The flow of polymer solution and heavy oil in porous media is critical for polymer flooding in heavy oil reservoirs because it significantly determines the polymer enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and polymer flooding efficiency in heavy oil reservoirs. In this paper, physical experiments and numerical simulations were both applied to investigate the flow of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) solution and heavy oil, and their effects on polymer flooding in heavy oil reservoirs. First, physical experiments determined the rheology of the polymer solution and heavy oil and their flow in porous media. Then, a new mathematical model was proposed, and an in-house three-dimensional (3D) two-phase polymer flooding simulator was designed considering the non-Newtonian flow. The designed simulator was validated by comparing its results with those obtained from commercial software and typical polymer flooding experiments. The developed simulator was further applied to investigate the non-Newtonian flow in polymer flooding. The experimental results demonstrated that the flow behavior index of the polymer solution is 0.3655, showing a shear thinning; and heavy oil is a type of Bingham fluid that overcomes a threshold pressure gradient (TPG) to flow in porous media. Furthermore, the validation of the designed simulator was confirmed to possess high accuracy and reliability. According to its simulation results, the decreases of 1.66% and 2.49% in oil recovery are caused by the difference between 0.18 and 1 in the polymer solution flow behavior indexes of the pure polymer flooding (PPF) and typical polymer flooding (TPF), respectively. Moreover, for heavy oil, considering a TPG of 20 times greater than its original value, the oil recoveries of PPF and TPF are reduced by 0.01% and 5.77%, respectively. Furthermore, the combined effect of shear thinning and a threshold pressure gradient results in a greater decrease in oil recovery, with 1.74% and 8.35% for PPF and TPF, respectively. Thus, the non-Newtonian flow has a hugely adverse impact on the performance of polymer flooding in heavy oil reservoirs.

Dataset Information

Surfactant-Polymer Flooding: Influence of the Injection Scheme.

Publications

Surfactant-Polymer Flooding: Influence of the Injection Scheme.

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