Sharif Digital Repository

In this work, a reliable dimensionless correlation is proposed for prediction of permeability reduction rate in porous media, which is verified by experimental data obtained in this work in glass bead and sand pack as well as the core data from the literature. Although this correlation is based on the data which were obtained in our work in glass bead and sand-packed media at low pressure, it shows considerable flexibility to match with the extracted data for sandstone cores at high pressure, various flow rates, different temperatures and concentrations of calcium, and sulfate ions in brine solutions. In addition, a novel relationship for predicting the rate of precipitation of CaSO4 in... 

In this work, an experimental and theoretical study has been conducted to investigate the permeability reduction due to CaSO4 scale deposition in packed column porous media. Permeability reduction by calcium sulphate deposition follows a systematic trend considering various important parameters that are affected in this complex process. Hence, a novel dimensionless model has been proposed for the prediction of permeability reduction rate with high accuracy. The developed model is based on the data obtained from glass bead and carbonate grain packed column at low pressure. The proposed model was validated with Berea sandstone cores data at high pressure (100-20,678 kPa), various flow rates... 

The authors present the results of numerical tests and simulations to investigate and analyze the likelihood of asphaltene precipitation and deposition during CO2 flooding in a reservoir. The effects of asphaltene precipitation on oil properties such as oil viscosity and density during miscible CO2 flooding process were elaborated by using Winprop software of Computer Modeling Group. Also oil properties change during CO 2 miscible flooding by numerical slim tube were investigated by a compositional simulator (GEM). A fluid sample of Saskatchewan Reservoir that had been flooded miscibly with CO2 was chosen for performing the sensitivity analyses. The results showed that asphaltene... 

Acid-oil emulsion and sludge formation are known as two major formation damage mechanisms and the reason for failure of some acid treatments. The published studies in this area focus primarily on core- to well/reservoir-scale and it is fairly unclear how acid-oil interaction at the pore-scale leads to the formation damage observed at the macro- or core-scale. In this paper, dynamic, micro-scale experiments were designed and executed to investigate the acid-induced formation damage using microfluidic approach. In addition, a series of so-called static (microscope) tests were performed in which acid-crude oil compatibility tests were conducted on a glass slide followed by microscopic... 

Oil production from asphaltenic oil reservoirs has always encountered difficulties, such as plugging and unpredictable fluid properties. To physically recognize the aspects of asphaltene deposition, several dynamic and static asphaltene deposition tests were designed and performed on one of the giant south Iranian oil reservoirs using dead and live crude oil and real core samples. Moreover, the effects of fluid velocity on the extent of damage were investigated. It was found that surface deposition of asphaltene particles is the main source of formation damages in the porous media and the resulting permeability impairment obeys an exponential behavior. All of the experiments confirm that... 

Asphaltene deposition is an issue that has received much attention since it has been shown to be the cause of major production problems. It leads to permeability reduction under the processes of natural depletion as well as hydrocarbon gas/CO2 injection. Though a great deal of researches have focused on studying permeability impairment in reservoir rocks, little is known about the asphaltene deposition mechanisms that control the permeability reduction for Iranian reservoirs. In this work, an experimental effort is made to investigate the permeability impairment of core samples of Iranian oil reservoirs. The experiments are performed on both sandstone and carbonate rock types at reservoir... 

In this work, asphaltene adsorption in a sandstone core sample under dynamic conditions and during miscible CO2 injection was studied using live oil sample which is close to real conditions in petroleum reservoirs. In order to investigate of damage in sandstone core sample by the deposited material such as asphaltene, the morphology analysis of sandstone core sample using scanning electron microscopic method was studied. Also analyses of the adsorbed material in sandstone core sample by Soxhlet extraction using an azeotrope mixture and with SARA method were performed. The experimental results show that by increasing the flow rate of injected CO2, the amount of asphaltene in retained material... 

In this work, a new model based on the multilayer adsorption kinetic mechanism and four material balance equations for oil, asphaltene, gas, and water phase has been developed to account for asphaltene deposition in porous media under dynamic conditions and the model was verified using experimental data obtained in this work and also with those reported in the literature. The results showed that the developed model based on multilayer adsorption kinetic mechanism can correlate more accurately the oil flooding experimental data in comparison to the previous models based on the mechanical plugging mechanism, in particular in carbonate core samples. Also, a series of experiments was carried to... 

In this paper, oil recovery and permeability reduction of a tight sandstone core sample in miscible CO2 flooding processes due to asphaltene deposition were studied using an Iranian bottom hole live oil sample in order to distinguish between the mechanical plugging and adsorption mechanisms of asphaltene involved in the interfacial interaction of the asphaltene/mineral rock system. A novel experimental method was designed and proposed to measure the amount of deposited asphaltene due to different mechanisms using the cyclohexane or toluene reverse flooding and spectrophotometer. In this work, the bottom hole live oil sample was injected first to a long core and then CO 2 injection was... 

In this work, experimental studies were conducted to determine the effect of asphaltene deposition on the permeability reduction and porosity reduction of carbonate, sandstone and dolomite rock samples using an Iranian bottom hole live oil sample which is close to reservoir conditions, whereas in the majority of previous work, a mixture of recombined oil (a mixture of dead oil and associated gas) was injected into a core sample which is far from reservoir conditions. The effect of the oil injection rate on asphaltene deposition and permeability reduction was studied. The experimental results showed that an increase in the oil injection flow rate can result in an increase in asphaltene... 

Changes in thermodynamic properties such as pressure, temperature, and composition may result in asphaltene precipitation and deposition in porous media. In addition, asphaltene deposition can cause wettability alteration, permeability reduction, and ultimately a decrease in the productivity of a reservoir. Natural depletion is one of the most common processes of asphaltene deposition in which pressure changes destabilize the dissolved asphaltene in the oil and settle them onto the rock surface. In this work, natural depletion experiments in consolidated core samples were performed under simulated reservoir conditions to obtain reliable data and analyze the asphaltene deposition mechanisms.... 

Different models have been proposed for deposition of asphaltene on reservoir rocks that due to complexity of asphaltene nature, most of them have not been productive. Here, a reliable model is proposed which despite of previous models, considers the change in asphaltene saturation in the core. The obtained experimental data in the laboratory was used for model validation. In this work, a series of core flooding tests was carried out in presence of connate water at different solvent-oil volume ratios. Pressure drop was measured at three different terminals along the core. The obtained experimental data as well as mass balance equations, momentum equation, asphaltene deposition and... 

Gravity, viscous, and capillary are three main forces affecting flow characteristics in porous media. No analytical solution can be found to model the flow by considering all these forces. In this work, by considering all these forces, the polymer-flooding process is modeled by using a numerical simulation approach. For characterizing the polymer, the modified Blake-Kozeny model is chosen, which benefits consideration of the permeability reduction due to polymer adsorption on the rock surface  

The authors studied deposition and entrainment of asphaltene particles as major mechanisms that occur in porous media. Deposition mechanisms that contribute to permeability reduction and entrainment of deposited particle improve the damaged permeability value. While in most previous works the effects of entrainment mechanism are considered negligible, in this study miscible CO2 injection tests were conducted by core flood apparatus to investigate the effect of asphaltene deposition on permeability and porosity alterations. Results indicated that proposed model for entrainment mechanism is affected by deposition mechanism. The asphaltene deposition core's characteristics have undeniable roles... 

Particle capture at porous media in cross-flow microfiltration is studied to investigate permeability reduction as a function of membrane pore size and particle size distribution. A new model in pore scale and its pertinent mathematical expressions, which consider pore and particle size distribution, are provided. Permeability reduction of the membrane because of size exclusion during particulate suspension flow was predicted using the developed model. It is assumed that the size exclusion is the dominant mechanism of particle retention causes pore blocking and permeability reduction in the porous media.The exact analytical solution of the stochastic model for size exclusion is used to... 

Particle capture at porous media in cross-flow microfiltration is studied to investigate permeability reduction as a function of membrane pore size and particle size distribution. A new model in pore scale and its pertinent mathematical expressions, which consider pore and particle size distribution, are provided. Permeability reduction of the membrane because of size exclusion during particulate suspension flow was predicted using the developed model. It is assumed that the size exclusion is the dominant mechanism of particle retention causes pore blocking and permeability reduction in the porous media.The exact analytical solution of the stochastic model for size exclusion is used to... 

Although CO2 injection significantly increases the amount of oil recovered, it can cause asphaltene deposition in oil reservoirs. Asphaltene deposition leads to formation damage, in which treatment is a costly and problematic operation. In this work, impact of asphaltene precipitation and deposition during CO2 injection are investigated for recombined oil both in sandstone and carbonate core samples through dynamic flow experiments. Injection of oil and CO2 was performed simultaneously. Then, pressure drops along the core were recorded continuously to estimate permeability reductions during the experiments. Online viscosity of injected fluid was measured by a designed capillary viscometer....