Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 28, 2025
08:38
Microfluidic Devices for Characterizing Pore-scale Event Processes in Porous Media for Oil Recovery Applications
Published on: January 16, 2018
10.4K
Porosity-Limited Transport during Two-Phase Surfactant/Polymer Floods in a Layered Sandstone
Andrea Rovelli1, Takeshi Kurotori1, James Brodie2
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington SW7 2AZ, U.K.
Energy & Fuels : an American Chemical Society Journal
|February 12, 2025
Summary
Surfactant/polymer flooding in heterogeneous cores shows high oil recovery but reveals inefficiencies. Direct imaging highlights flow variations, crucial for understanding scale-up challenges in enhanced oil recovery.
Area of Science:
- Petroleum Engineering
- Reservoir Engineering
- Enhanced Oil Recovery
Background:
- Surfactant/polymer flooding is a key enhanced oil recovery technique with high potential.
- Discrepancies between lab and field results hinder industrial application.
- Corefloods are vital for evaluating recovery but often use homogeneous samples.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate surfactant/polymer flooding in a heterogeneous Nugget sandstone core.
- To understand the impact of core stratification on tertiary oil recovery.
- To compare flood performance in heterogeneous versus homogeneous cores.
Main Methods:
- X-ray computed tomography (CT) for core characterization.
- Tertiary surfactant/polymer flooding experiment.
- Step tracer tests for flow path analysis.
- Direct imaging during the flood.
Main Results:
- Identified preferential flow paths and slow-ingress regions in the stratified core.
- Observed higher recovery variability across different porosity layers compared to homogeneous cores.
- Noted the absence of an oil bank formation in the heterogeneous core.
- Achieved an overall oil recovery of 80%.
Conclusions:
- Direct imaging revealed process inefficiencies not apparent in bulk measurements.
- Core stratification significantly influences surfactant/polymer flood performance.
- Understanding heterogeneity is critical for successful scale-up of enhanced oil recovery methods.
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