Surfactant-free Aluminum Silicate-based Nanofluids for Enhanced Oil Recovery from Austin Chalk Carbonate Reservoirs
Date
2020-05-25
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Abstract
Recently, the application of nanoparticles for enhancing oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs has received great attention from various researchers across the oil and gas industry. In contrast to sandstone reservoirs, carbonates are naturally neutral-wet or preferentially oil-wet. Understanding the mechanisms associated with wettability alteration of these reservoirs, especially to strongly water-wet, is of great importance during various stages of oil production. Altering the reservoir wettability towards water-wet enhances the spontaneous imbibition of water, resulting in improved oil recovery. In this study, a novel surfactant-free aluminum silicate-based nanofluid is synthesised and tested for its efficiency to alter the wettability of Austin Chalk carbonate rocks from oil-wet to strongly water-wet. Characterization techniques, such as SEM, BET, XRD, DLS, and Z-potential were conducted on the synthesized nanoparticles to confirm their surface identity, functionality, stability, and morphology. The prepared nanofluids from the synthesized nanoparticles were tested in comparison to brine for their EOR efficiency in carbonate cores. The EOR performance was investigated by interfacial tension (IFT), contact angle, spontaneous imbibition, and displacement tests. The results showed that compared to brine alone, nanofluids could notably alter the rock wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. To confirm this, a core flooding test was performed which further reiterated the capability of the aluminum silicate-based nanofluids to act as effective EOR agents in hydrocarbon carbonate reservoirs by recovering an additional 9.23% of residual oil in comparison to low-salinity brine.
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Keywords
nanofluids, nanoparticles, EOR, Enhanced oil recovery, core flooding, carbonate, reservoir engineering, nanofluid flooding
Citation
Taleb, M. (2020). Surfactant-free Aluminum Silicate-based Nanofluids for Enhanced Oil Recovery from Austin Chalk Carbonate Reservoirs (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.