Development and Performance Evaluation of a Temperature- and Salt-Resistant Bio-Based Profile-Control and Oil...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Petroleum Engineering
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Harsh reservoir conditions (high temperature ≥ 100 °C, high salinity > 100 g/L) challenge conventional chemical flooding and profile-control agents.
• Existing agents often lack sufficient thermal stability, salt tolerance, injectivity, and environmental compatibility for these demanding environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel bio-based composite mobility-control and oil-displacement system.
• To evaluate the system's performance in high-temperature and high-salinity conditions.
• To provide a sustainable solution for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in challenging reservoirs.

Main Methods:

• Corn straw was carbonized at 500 °C and ball-milled to produce fine particles (average size 2.8 μm).
• A composite system was formed by combining carbonized particles with scleroglucan.
• Evaluated rheological behavior, thermal/salt tolerance, aging stability, injectivity, plugging efficiency, and EOR performance.

Main Results:

• The composite system exhibited stable viscosity and viscoelasticity between 30-130 °C in various saline solutions, with <10% viscosity loss.
• It maintained >90% viscosity retention after 28 days of aging at 100 °C and showed high plugging efficiency (95.7%).
• Enhanced oil recovery increased by 6.7 percentage points (from 46.6% to 53.3%) compared to scleroglucan flooding alone.

Conclusions:

• The carbonized biomass particle-scleroglucan composite demonstrates excellent thermal stability, salt tolerance, and plugging capacity.
• The system significantly improves oil displacement efficiency in harsh reservoir conditions.
• This bio-based composite presents a promising green strategy for mobility control and EOR in challenging environments.