High-performance displacement by microgel-in-oil suspension in heterogeneous porous media: Microscale visualization...

Preferential flow in porous media is commonly encountered and decreases the multiphase displacement efficiency. Here, we synthesized microgel-in-oil in suspension and demonstrated that microgel-in-oil as a novel additive could present self-adaptive transport behavior and introduce a novel multiphase displacement mode for improving displacement efficiency in heterogeneous porous media.

We investigated the microgel-in-oil formation process and characterized their morphology with fluorescence microscopy and Cryo-SEM. The suspension displacement performance in heterogeneous porous media was evaluated using a microfluidic chip containing a preferential flow pathway (PFP) and a parallel matrix region. The displacement results of microgel-in-oil were compared to plain microgel particles and analyzed from pore-scale particle transport behavior to macroscopic multiphase flow patterns.

The results show that suspension with moderate microgel-in-oil yields the optimal displacement efficiency. Fewer microgel-in-oil cannot alter the flow direction, while too many microgel-in-oil would block the PFP region. The topological analysis identified that suspensions with moderate microgel-in-oil content could achieve the strongest sweeping and carrying abilities that contribute to the highest displacement efficiency. The synergistic transport of microgel-in-oil and plain microgel particles would result in local pressure fluctuations to divert displacing fluid from PFP into the matrix region, which explains the above flow behavior.