Surfactant-Polymer Interactions in a Combined Enhanced Oil Recovery Flooding

Pablo Druetta and Francesco Picchioni
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Pablo Druetta: Department of Chemical Engineering, ENTEG, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747AG Groningen, The Netherlands
Francesco Picchioni: Department of Chemical Engineering, ENTEG, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747AG Groningen, The Netherlands

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-23

Abstract: The traditional Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes allow improving the performance of mature oilfields after waterflooding projects. Chemical EOR processes modify different physical properties of the fluids and/or the rock in order to mobilize the oil that remains trapped. Furthermore, combined processes have been proposed to improve the performance, using the properties and synergy of the chemical agents. This paper presents a novel simulator developed for a combined surfactant/polymer flooding in EOR processes. It studies the flow of a two-phase, five-component system (aqueous and organic phases with water, petroleum, surfactant, polymer and salt) in porous media. Polymer and surfactant together affect each other’s interfacial and rheological properties as well as the adsorption rates. This is known in the industry as Surfactant-Polymer Interaction (SPI). The simulations showed that optimum results occur when both chemical agents are injected overlapped, with the polymer in the first place. This procedure decreases the surfactant’s adsorption rates, rendering higher recovery factors. The presence of the salt as fifth component slightly modifies the adsorption rates of both polymer and surfactant, but its influence on the phase behavior allows increasing the surfactant’s sweep efficiency.

Keywords: EOR; surfactant-polymer; SPI; reservoir simulation; TVD; petroleum (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 references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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