Sodium Silicate Behavior in Porous Media Applied for In-Depth Profile Modifications

Hossein A. Akhlaghi Amiri, Aly A. Hamouda and Alireza Roostaei
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Hossein A. Akhlaghi Amiri: Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, Stavanger 4036, Norway
Aly A. Hamouda: Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, Stavanger 4036, Norway
Alireza Roostaei: Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, Stavanger 4036, Norway

Energies, 2014, vol. 7, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: This paper addresses alkaline sodium silicate (Na-silicate) behavior in porous media. One of the advantages of the Na-silicate system is its water-like injectivity during the placement stage. Mixing Na-silicate with saline water results in metal silicate precipitation as well as immediate gelation. This work demonstrated that low salinity water (LSW, sea water diluted 25 times) could be used as a pre-flush in flooding operations. A water override phenomenon was observed during gel formation which is caused by gravity segregation. Dynamic adsorption tests in the sand-packed tubes showed inconsiderable adsorbed silicon density (about 8.5 × 10 ?10 kg/cm 3 for a solution with 33 mg/L silicon content), which is less than the estimated mono-layer adsorption density of 1.4 × 10 ?8 kg/cm 3 . Na-silicate enhanced water sweep efficiency after application in a dual-permeability sand-pack system, without leak off into the oil-bearing low permeability (LP) zone. Field-scale numerical sensitivity studies in a layered reservoir demonstrated that higher permeability and viscosity contrasts and lower vertical/horizontal permeability ratio result in lower Na-silicate leakoff into the matrix. The length of the mixing zone between reservoir water and the injected Na-silicate solution, which is formed by low salinity pre-flush, acts as a buffer zone.

Keywords: sodium silicate (Na-silicate); gelation time; temperature; low salinity water (LSW); sand-pack (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: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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