Synergistic Effect of Nanofluids and Surfactants on Heavy Oil Recovery and Oil-Wet Calcite Wettability

Research on Performance Evaluation of Polymeric Surfactant Cleaning Gel-Breaking Fluid (GBF) and Its Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Effect

Clean fracturing fluid has the characteristics of being environmentally friendly and causing little damage to reservoirs. Meanwhile, its backflow gel-breaking fluids (GBFs) can be reutilized as an oil displacement agent. This paper systematically evaluates the feasibility and EOR mechanism of a GBF based on a polymer surfactant as an oil displacement system for reutilization. A rotating interfacial tensiometer and contact angle measuring instrument were used to evaluate the performance of reducing the oil-water interfacial tension (IFT) and to change the rock wettability, respectively. Additionally, a homogeneous apparatus was used to prepare emulsions to evaluate GBF's emulsifying properties. Finally, core flooding experiments were used to evaluate the EOR effect of GBFs, and the influence rules and main controlling effects of various properties on the EOR were clarified. As the concentration of GBFs increases, the IFT first decreases to the lowest of 0.37 mN/m at 0.20 wt% and then increases and the contact angle of the rock wall decreases from 129° and stabilizes at 42°. Meanwhile, the emulsion droplet size gradually decreases and stabilizes with increases in GBF concentration, and the smallest particle size occurs when the concentration is 0.12-0.15 wt%. The limited adsorption area of the oil-water interface and the long molecular chain are the main reasons that limit the continued IFT reduction and emulsion stability. The oil displacement experiment shows that the concentration of GBF solution to obtain the best EOR effect is 0.15 wt%. At this concentration, the IFT reduction and the emulsification performance are not optimal. This shows that the IFT reduction performance, reservoir wettability change performance, and emulsification performance jointly determine the EOR effect of GBFs. In contrast, the emulsifying performance of GBFs is the main controlling factor for the EOR. Finally, the optimal application concentration of GBFs is 0.15-0.20 wt%, and the optimal injection volume is 0.5 PV.

A Review of Oil-Solid Separation and Oil-Water Separation in Unconventional Heavy Oil Production Process

Unconventional heavy oil ores (UHO) have been considered an important part of petroleum resources and an alternative source of chemicals and energy supply. Due to the participation of water and extractants, oil-solid separation (OSS) and oil-water separation (OWS) processes are inevitable in the industrial separation processes of UHO. Therefore, this critical review systematically reviews the basic theories of OSS and OWS, including solid wettability, contact angle, oil-solid interactions, structural characteristics of natural surfactants and interface characteristics of interfacially active asphaltene film. With the basic theories in mind, the corresponding OSS and OWS mechanisms are discussed. Finally, the present challenges and future research considerations are touched on to provide insights and theoretical fundamentals for OSS and OWS. Additionally, this critical review might even be useful for the provision of a framework of research prospects to guide future research directions in laboratories and industries that focus on the OSS and OWS processes in this important heavy oil production field.

Study of the Adsorption Behavior of Surfactants on Carbonate Surface by Experiment and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Surfactants adsorption onto carbonate reservoirs would cause surfactants concentrations decrease in surfactant flooding, which would decrease surfactant efficiency in practical applications of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. Different surfactants could be classified as cationic surfactants, anionic surfactants, non-ionic surfactants according to the main charge, or be classified as chemical surfactant and bio-surfactant according to the surfactant origin. However, the research on different type surfactants adsorption on carbonate reservoirs surface differences was few. Therefore, five representative surfactants (CTAB, SDS, TX-100, sophorolipid, rhamonilipid) adsorption effect onto carbonate reservoirs surface was studied. Owing to the fact that the salinity and temperature in underground carbonate reservoirs were high during the EOR process, it is vital to study the salinity effect and temperature effect on surfactant adsorption. In this study, different surfactants species, temperature and salinity adsorption onto carbonate reservoirs were studied. The adsorption isotherms were fitted by Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Linear models, and the first three models fitting effect were good. The results showed that cationic surfactants adsorption quantity was higher than anionic surfactants, and the non-ionic surfactants adsorption quantity was the lowest. When the temperature increased, the surfactants adsorption would decrease, because the adsorption process was exothermic process, and increasing temperature would inhibit the adsorption. The higher salinity would increase surfactants adsorption because higher salinity could compress electric double layer. In order to decrease surfactants adsorption, SiO2 nanoparticles and TiO2 nanoparticles were added to surfactants solutions, and then surfactants could adsorb onto nanoparticles surface, then the steric hindrance between surfactant molecules would increase, which could decrease surfactants adsorption. Contact angle results indicated that surfactants adsorption made the carbonate reservoir wettability alteration. In the end, surfactants (with or without SiO2 nanoparticles) adsorption onto carbonate reservoirs mechanism were studied by molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results indicated that the surfactants molecules could adsorb onto SiO2 nanoparticles surface, and then the surfactants adsorption quantity onto carbonate rocks would decrease, which was in accordance with the experiments results.