Synthesis of Al2O3–SiO2/water hybrid nanofluids and effects of surfactant toward dispersion and stability

Low-salinity water flooding by a novel hybrid of nano γ-Al2O3/SiO2 modified with a green surfactant for enhanced oil recovery

This paper introduces a hybrid enhanced oil recovery (HEOR) method that combines a low-salinity water flooding (LSWF) and nanoparticles (NPs) stabilized with a green surfactant. We experimentally investigated the use of combinations of silica (SiO2) and gamma alumina (γ-Al2O3) nanohybrids stabilized with Gum Arabic (GA) at different water salinities. Nanofluids (NFs) were prepared by dispersing γ-Al2O3 and SiO2 NPs (0.1 wt%) in deionized water (DW), synthetic seawater (SSW), 2, 5, and 10 times diluted samples of synthetic seawater (in short 2-DSSW, 5-DSSW and 10-DSSW, respectively). The challenge is that NPs become unstable in the presence of cations in saline water. Moreover, an attempt was made to introduce NFs with high stability for a long period of time as the optimal NFs. The effects of temperature on the behaviour of optimal NFs in the presence of different base fluids, distinct mass ratios of γ-Al2O3/SiO2 and various concentrations of surfactant were analysed via interfacial tension (IFT) and viscosity measurements. The results of the viscosity measurement showed that with increasing temperature, the NPs dispersed in DW had lower viscosity than NPs dispersed in various salinities. However, the IFT measurement for NPs dispersed in different base-fluids revealed that with increasing temperature and presence of cations in saline water, IFT values decreases. Although, the minimum IFT for hybrid nanofluid (HNF) γ-Al2O3/SiO2 modified with GA and dispersed in 10-DSSW was reported 0.99 mN/m. Finally, according to the micromodel flooding results, in oil-wet conditions, the highest oil recovery for combination γ-Al2O3/SiO2 modified with GA and dispersed in 2-DSSW was reported 60.34%. It was concluded that NFs modified with GA could enhanced applicability of LSWF via delay in breakthrough time and improving sweep efficiency.

Impact of Al2O3 in Electrically Conducting Mineral Oil-Based Maxwell Nanofluid: Application to the Petroleum Industry

Alumina nanoparticles (Al2O3) are one of the essential metal oxides and have a wide range of applications and unique physio-chemical features. Most notably, alumina has been shown to have thermal properties such as high thermal conductivity and a convective heat transfer coefficient. Therefore, this study is conducted to integrate the adsorption of Al2O3 in mineral oil-based Maxwell fluid. The ambitious goal of this study is to intensify the mechanical and thermal properties of a Maxwell fluid under heat flux boundary conditions. The novelty of the research is increased by introducing fractional derivatives to the Maxwell model. There are various distinct types of fractional derivative definitions, with the Caputo fractional derivative being one of the most predominantly applied. Therefore, the fractoinal-order derivatives are evaluated using the fractional Caputo derivative, and the integer-order derivatives are evaluated using the Crank–Nicolson method. The obtained results are graphically displayed to demonstrate how all governing parameters, such as nanoparticle volume fraction, relaxation time, fractional derivative, magnetic field, thermal radiation, and viscous dissipation, have a significant impact on fluid flow and temperature distribution.