Experimental Investigation of Nano-Biomaterial Applications for Heavy Oil Recovery in Shaly Porous Models: A Pore-Level Study
01 Jan 2015-Journal of Energy Resources Technology-transactions of The Asme (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)-Vol. 137, Iss: 1, pp 014501
About: This article is published in Journal of Energy Resources Technology-transactions of The Asme.The article was published on 2015-01-01. It has received 48 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Displacement (orthopedic surgery).
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the latest studies about the use of nanoparticles to enhance oil recovery and paves the way for researchers who are interested in the integration of these progresses.
Abstract: The injected fluids in secondary processes supplement the natural energy present in the reservoir to displace oil. The recovery efficiency mainly depends on the mechanism of pressure maintenance. However, the injected fluids in tertiary or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes interact with the reservoir rock/oil system. Thus, EOR techniques are receiving substantial attention worldwide as the available oil resources are declining. However, some challenges, such as low sweep efficiency, high costs and potential formation damage, still hinder the further application of these EOR technologies. Current studies on nanoparticles are seen as potential solutions to most of the challenges associated with these traditional EOR techniques. This paper provides an overview of the latest studies about the use of nanoparticles to enhance oil recovery and paves the way for researchers who are interested in the integration of these progresses. The first part of this paper addresses studies about the major EOR mechanisms of nanoparticles used in the forms of nanofluids, nanoemulsions and nanocatalysts, including disjoining pressure, viscosity increase of injection fluids, preventing asphaltene precipitation, wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. This part is followed by a review of the most important research regarding various novel nano-assisted EOR methods where nanoparticles are used to target various existing thermal, chemical and gas methods. Finally, this review identifies the challenges and opportunities for future study regarding application of nanoparticles in EOR processes.
343 citations
Cites background or methods from "Experimental Investigation of Nano-..."
...[44] found that nano-biomaterials have the ability to alter the wettability of shale from oil-wet to water-wet due to simultaneous utilization of nano and biomaterials....
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...[44] SiO2-biomaterial/water Heavy oil 925 200 Shale Contact angle method NP concentration...
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TL;DR: In this article, a review of the recent literature on nano-technology and determine the most reliable mechanisms associated with different particles is presented along with different experimental studies, and possible limitations and challenges that face the combination of surfactants and nanoparticles in EOR applications are presented.
142 citations
TL;DR: A comprehensive review of different thermal and non-thermal EOR methods is presented and discussed in this paper, which is considered the dominant technique among all different methods of EOR.
Abstract: The oil production from any well passes through three stages. The first stage is the natural extraction of oil under the well pressure, the second stage starts when the well pressure decreases. This second stage includes flooding the well with water via pumping sea or brackish water to increase the well pressure and push the oil up enhancing the oil recovery. After the first and secondary stages of oil production from the well, 20–30% of the well reserve is extracted. The well is said to be depleted while more than 70% of the oil are left over. At this stage, the third stage starts and it is called the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or tertiary recovery. Enhanced oil recovery is a technology deployed to recover most of our finite crude oil deposit. With constant increase in energy demands, EOR will go a long way in extracting crude oil reserve while achieving huge economic benefits. EOR involves thermal and/or nonthermal means of changing the properties of crude oil in reservoirs, such as density and viscosity that ensures improved oil displacement in the reservoir and consequently better recovery. Thermal EOR, which is the focus of this paper, is considered the dominant technique among all different methods of EOR. In this paper, we present a brief overview of EOR classification in terms of thermal and nonthermal methods. Furthermore, a comprehensive review of different thermal EOR methods is presented and discussed.
95 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the characteristics of oil distribution in porous media systems during a high water-cut stage, sandstones with different permeability scales of 53.63 × 10-3 μm 2 and 108.11 ×10-3 µm 2 were imaged under a resolution of 4.12 μm during a water flooding process using X-ray tomography.
Abstract: To investigate the characteristics of oil distribution in porous media systems during a high water-cut stage, sandstones with different permeability scales of 53.63 ×10-3 μm 2 and 108.11 ×10-3 μm 2 were imaged under a resolution of 4.12 μm during a water flooding process using X-ray tomography. Based on the cluster-size distribution of oil segmented from the tomography images, and through classification using the shape factor and Euler number, the transformation of the oil distribution pattern in different injection stages was studied for samples with different pore structures. In general, the distribution patterns of an oil cluster continuously change during water injection. Large connected oil clusters break off into smaller segments. For sandstones with higher permeability, which show the largest change in distribution pattern, and the remaining oil is trapped in the pores with a radius of approximately 7-12 μm. Meanwhile, some disconnected clusters merge and lead to a re-connection during the high water cut period. Whereas the pore structure becomes compact and complex, the residual non-wetting phase becomes static and is difficult to move, and thus all distribution patterns coexist during the entire displacement process, and are mainly distributed in pores with a radius of 8-12 μm. For the pore-scale entrapment characteristics of the oil phase during a high water cut period, different enhance oil recovery (EOR) methods should be considered in sandstones correspondent to each permeability scale.
73 citations
Cites background from "Experimental Investigation of Nano-..."
...Research has shown that porous systems containing remaining oil are significantly influenced by the pore scale entrapment characteristics of the oil phase [11, 12]....
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TL;DR: In this article, the effects of silica and copper oxide nanoparticles on polyamine-based non-damaging drilling fluids and conventional bentonite-based drilling fluids (BDF) were investigated.
Abstract: The increase in hydrocarbon production from problematic production zones having high fluid loss and formation damage has led to the emergence of non-damaging drilling fluids (NDDF). Recently, nanotechnology has found a wide array of applications in the oil and gas industry. Most applications of nanotechnology and enhancement in properties of drilling fluids are restricted to bentonite, xanthan gum and a few oil-based mud. In this study, the effects of silica and copper oxide nanoparticles on polyamine-based NDDF and conventional bentonite-based drilling fluids (BDF) were investigated. Silica nanoparticles were prepared using sol–gel method, and copper oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using co-precipitation method. Nano-based drilling fluids were prepared by dispersing nanoparticles in concentrations of 0.5%, 0.8% and 1% by weight. Furthermore, testing of these nano-based drilling fluids was conducted by measuring specific gravity, pH, rheological properties and filtrate loss at surface temperature (room temperature) and then aging it at bottom-hole temperature (80 °C). The addition of silica and copper oxide nanoparticles to both the drilling fluids did not show much effect on pH and specific gravity. Addition of 0.5% concentration of silica nanoparticles in NDDF showed least degradation in rheological properties compared to other fluids. It showed reduction in filtrate loss by 31%. Moreover, silica nanoparticles in conjunction with BDF acted as a mud thinner showing a decrease in viscosity and yield point. On the contrary, when used with NDDFs, silica nanoparticles acted as a mud thickener. Copper oxide nanoparticles behaved as a thinner in both the drilling fluids with a highest reduction in plastic viscosity of 24% for 0.8% of copper oxide nanoparticle in BDF. Thinning properties were enhanced as the doping concentrations of copper oxide nanoparticles increased; however, the fluid loss controlling ability decreased except for 0.5% concentration by 31% and 24% when used with both the drilling fluids. Additionally, optimal Herschel–Bulkley parameters have been determined by using genetic algorithm to minimize the function of sum of squared errors between observed values and model equation.
67 citations
References
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TL;DR: The current knowledge and the latest advances in biosurfactant applications and the biotechnological strategies being developed for improving production processes and future potential are reviewed.
Abstract: Microorganisms synthesise a wide range of surface-active compounds (SAC), generally called biosurfactants. These compounds are mainly classified according to their molecular weight, physico-chemical properties and mode of action. The low-molecular-weight SACs or biosurfactants reduce the surface tension at the air/water interfaces and the interfacial tension at oil/water interfaces, whereas the high-molecular-weight SACs, also called bioemulsifiers, are more effective in stabilising oil-in-water emulsions. Biosurfactants are attracting much interest due to their potential advantages over their synthetic counterparts in many fields spanning environmental, food, biomedical, and other industrial applications. Their large-scale application and production, however, are currently limited by the high cost of production and by limited understanding of their interactions with cells and with the abiotic environment. In this paper, we review the current knowledge and the latest advances in biosurfactant applications and the biotechnological strategies being developed for improving production processes and future potential.
1,248 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the unstructured kinetics and the structured kinetics models were described in batch processes but the continuous kinetic model is insufficiently cared, and the problem of limited oxygen transfer suggests that a new bioreactor design is required.
331 citations
01 Jan 2012
142 citations
26 Mar 2013
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the potential of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles suspension as enhanced oil recovery agent and found out the main mechanisms of nanofluids for EOR in the laboratory scale.
Abstract: In last decade, a number of papers about nanoparticles studies have been published related to its benefit for oil and gas industries. Some of them discussed about the potential of nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the laboratory scale. One of possible EOR mechanisms of nanofluids has been described as disjoining pressure gradient (Chengara, 2004, and Wasan, 2011). The benefit of using silica nanoparticles was explained by Miranda (2012). Hence, the present study objective is to investigate the potential of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles suspension as enhanced oil recovery agent and find out the main mechanisms of nanofluids for EOR.
In this study, hydrophilic nanoparticles with average particle size of 7 nm were used in both visualization glass micromodel flooding experiments and core flooding experiments. A water-wet transparent glass micromodel and Berea sandstone cores with 300-400 mD permeability were used as porous medium. Synthetic brine was used as disperse fluid for nanoparticles. In order to investigate the recovery mechanisms of nanofluids, interfacial tension (IFT) and contact angle between different concentration nanofluids and crude oil have been measured by using spinning drop and pendent drop methods.
The experimental results indicate that the nanofluids can reduce the IFT between water phase and oil phase and make the solid surface more water wet. In the visualization glass micromodel flooding experiments, it was observed that nanofluids can release oil drops trapped by capillary pressure, while the high concentration nanofluids stabilized oil-water emulsion. For the core flooding experiments, nanofluids can increase recovery about 4-5% compared to brine flooding. These results indicate that these nanoparticles are potential EOR agents. The future expectation is that nanoparticles could mobilize more oil in the pore network at field scale to improve oil recovery.
127 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) technique in fractured porous media using etched-glass micromodels, and show that higher oil recovery efficiency can be achieved by using biosurfactant-producing bacterium in fractured and non-fractured porous media.
117 citations