In Situ Wettability Investigation of Aging of Sandstone Surface in Alkane via X-ray Microtomography

Nilesh Kumar Jha, Maxim Lebedev, Stefan Iglauer, Jitendra S. Sangwai and Mohammad Sarmadivaleh
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Nilesh Kumar Jha: Western Australia School of Mines (WASM), Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia
Maxim Lebedev: Western Australia School of Mines (WASM), Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia
Stefan Iglauer: School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia
Jitendra S. Sangwai: Petroleum Engineering Program, Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600036, India
Mohammad Sarmadivaleh: Western Australia School of Mines (WASM), Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-9

Abstract: Wettability of surfaces remains of paramount importance for understanding various natural and artificial colloidal and interfacial phenomena at various length and time scales. One of the problems discussed in this work is the wettability alteration of a three-phase system comprising high salinity brine as the aqueous phase, Doddington sandstone as porous rock, and decane as the nonaqueous phase liquid. The study utilizes the technique of in situ contact angle measurements of the several 2D projections of the identified 3D oil phase droplets from the 3D images of the saturated sandstone miniature core plugs obtained by X-ray microcomputed tomography (micro-CT). Earlier works that utilize in situ contact angles measurements were carried out for a single plane. The saturated rock samples were scanned at initial saturation conditions and after aging for 21 days. This study at ambient conditions reveals that it is possible to change the initially intermediate water-wet conditions of the sandstone rock surface to a weakly water wetting state on aging by alkanes using induced polarization at the interface. The study adds to the understanding of initial wettability conditions as well as the oil migration process of the paraffinic oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. Further, it complements the knowledge of the wettability alteration of the rock surface due to chemisorption, usually done by nonrepresentative technique of silanization of rock surface in experimental investigations.

Keywords: in situ porous media; wettability; X-ray microtomography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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