Influence of Nanoemulsion Droplet Size of Removing Water Blocking Damage in Tight Gas Reservoir

Yuan Li, Fujian Zhou, Jie Wang, Bojun Li, Hang Xu, Erdong Yao and Longhao Zhao
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Yuan Li: Unconventional Petroleum Research Institute, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Fujian Zhou: Unconventional Petroleum Research Institute, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Jie Wang: School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434000, China
Bojun Li: Unconventional Petroleum Research Institute, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Hang Xu: Unconventional Petroleum Research Institute, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Erdong Yao: Unconventional Petroleum Research Institute, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Longhao Zhao: Unconventional Petroleum Research Institute, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: During the production process, water phase incursion into the reservoir causes water blocking damage and seriously affects the production of tight gas reservoirs. Recently, nanoemulsions have been used as highly effective water blocking removing agents in the field, but their mechanism is still unclear. In this research, a series of nanoemulsions with different droplet sizes were synthesized, and their water blocking removing performance was intensively investigated. To begin, the relationship between the droplet size and the chemical composition of the nanoemulsion was determined by dynamic light scattering. Second, the influence of the nanoemulsion droplet size on the surface tension and the contact angle experiments was studied. Finally, NMR and permeability recovery experiments were used to study the relationship between the droplet size and the water locking removing effect of the nanoemulsions. Simultaneously, the surfactant release process was investigated using the static adsorption curves of the nanoemulsions. The experimental results show that the droplet size of nanoemulsion has an exponential relationship with the oil phase content. The surface tension decreases with the increase in droplet size, but the wetting reversal effect decreases with the increase in droplet size. The nanoemulsion with an oil phase content of 5 wt.% has the best water locking removing effect, and the permeability recovery value of the core reaches 59.54%. The adsorption control of the nanoemulsion on the surfactant is the key to its water blocking removing ability. This comprehensive study shows that the nanoemulsion with an oil phase content of 5 wt.% has optimum adsorption control capability. Thus, it can be used as a promising candidate for removing water blocking in tight gas reservoirs.

Keywords: water blocking removing; nanoemulsions; nuclear magnetic resonance; low energy emulsification method; adsorption; gas wettability (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: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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