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Pore-Scale Experimental Study of Foam/Nano-Foam Flooding to Heavy oil in Heterogeneous Five-Spot System: Stability Analysis and Displacement Mechanisms

Suleymani, Mohammad | 2014

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 46614 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Ghazanfari, Mohammad Hossein
  7. Abstract:
  8. Foam injection for enhanced oil recovery is concerned by petroleum engineers because it decreases adverse effects of fingering and gravity segregation caused by the injected fluid .Obviously foam stability is an important factor in the efficiency of this process. So investigating it is an imperative. One of the ways that less studied and can improve foam stability is using of nanoparticles. In this project effect of nanoparticles on foam stability and displacement mechanism during foam flooding has been discussed.
    Study consisted of two sets of experiments. In the first part, the static foam stability in the presence of silica nanoparticles has been investigated. Also influence of various factors such as type of surfactant, surfactant concentration and salt in the presence of various concentrations of nanoparticles on foam stability has been investigated. Using turbidity measurements, the stability of solution and the interaction of nanoparticles with surfactant has been identified. The results indicate that in the presence of surfactant CTAB, adsorption of surfactant monomers on the surface of nanoparticles will occur. Increasing the concentration of CTAB in the presence of nanoparticles decreases the stability of the foam. For .05 wt.% SDS surfactant concentration, a stable foam has not been observed and even nanosilica in this case is not able to increase stability. While for .5 wt.% SDS a stable foam was observed and with the addition of nanoparticles stability at low concentration such as 1.0 wt.% and .5 wt.% increases, at 2.0 wt.% concentration of nanoparticles stability would decreases than for greater than 2.0 wt.% nanoparticles concentration the stability would increases again. At low concentrations of nanoparticles, the addition of NaCl salt solution decreases the stability of the foam while high concentrations of nanoparticles concentration associated with increased stability.
    In the second part, foam is injected into the micromodel and pore-scale displacement mechanism of oil have been investigated. several mechanisms including : mechanism of lamella division, improving sweep efficiency in fractured pattern, improving sweep efficiency of dead end pore, mechanism of forming an emulsion of oil in water and vice versa, emulsion stability and wettability alteration has been directly observed and analyzed by the micromodel. The results of this study can help to better understanding the mechanism of phase displacement in the presence of nanoparticles during foam injection and how the nanoparticles can improve the stability of foam
  9. Keywords:
  10. Foam ; Stability ; Enhanced Oil Recovery ; Surfactants ; Micromodel ; Nanoparticles ; Nanofoam ; Foam Injection

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