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Updated: Oct 18, 2025
Microfluidic Devices for Characterizing Pore-scale Event Processes in Porous Media for Oil Recovery Applications
Published on: January 16, 2018
Fluorescent visualization of oil displacement in a microfluidic device for enhanced oil recovery applications
Khashayar R Bajgiran1, Hannah C Hymel1, Shayan Sombolestani2
1Cain Department of Chemical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA. melvin@lsu.edu.
Abstract:
A microfluidic device was developed to mimic the reservoir pore-scale and track the oil/water phases during air flooding. The chip was generated by combining soft-lithography and NOA81 replication. A unique feature of this approach is the inclusion of fluorescent dyes into the oil/water phases, allowing for real-time visualization of oil recovery without altering the phases' surface properties. As a proof of concept, the air was injected into the water/oil-flooded device for enhanced oil recovery applications.
