Petroleum Science and Technology ISSN: 1091-6466 (Print) 1532-2459 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/lpet20 Evaluation of the ability of the hydrophobic nanoparticles of SiO2 in the EOR process through carbonate rock samples Mohammad-Ali Ahmadi, Zainal Ahmad, Le Thi Kim Phung, Tomoaki Kashiwao & Alireza Bahadori To cite this article: Mohammad-Ali Ahmadi, Zainal Ahmad, Le Thi Kim Phung, Tomoaki Kashiwao & Alireza Bahadori (2016) Evaluation of the ability of the hydrophobic nanoparticles of SiO2 in the EOR process through carbonate rock samples, Petroleum Science and Technology, 34:11-12, 1048-1054, DOI: 10.1080/10916466.2016.1148052 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10916466.2016.1148052 Published online: 12 Jul 2016 Submit your article to this journal Article views: 26 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=lpet20 Download by: [University of California, San Diego] Date: 22 July 2016, At: 01:23 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY , VOL , NOS –, – http://dx.doi.org/./.. Evaluation of the ability of the hydrophobic nanoparticles of SiO in the EOR process through carbonate rock samples Mohammad-Ali Ahmadia , Zainal Ahmadb , Le Thi Kim Phungc , Tomoaki Kashiwaod , and Alireza Bahadorie Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 01:23 22 July 2016 a Department of Petroleum Engineering, Ahwaz Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahwaz, Iran; b School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia; c Department of Chemical process and Equipment, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Hochiminh City University of Technology, Hochiminh City, Vietnam; d Department of Electronics and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Niihama College, Yagumo-cho, Niihama, Ehime, Japan; e School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia ABSTRACT KEYWORDS More than 50% of oil remains in reservoirs after primary and secondary recovery processes Consequently, methods of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) should be applied for more recovery from these reservoirs In this study the ability of hydrophobic nanoparticles of sio2 in EOR process through carbonate rock samples is studied By employing hydrophobic nanosilica, we can lower interfacial tension between oil and nanofluid and then reduce the mobility ratio between oil and nanofluid in carbonate reservoirs; however, nanosilica can increase the viscosity of water exponentially To evaluate this goal, core displacement experiment for carbonate core is conducted These experiments are performed on the carbonate samples saturated with oil and brine that had got injected with nanosilica with six different concentrations Investigating the outcomes shows that by rising nanoparticle concentration, the IFT between water and oil phases decreases and yields in decrease the mobility ratio between oil and nanofluid For this, we measure the recovery level in different states of using 0.05, 0.1, 0.1, 0.15, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, and concentration of the nanoparticle The outcomes achieved from our experiments reveals that employing hydrophobic nanosilica could increases the oil recovery factor Carbonate reservoir; hydrophobic; microemulsion; nanoparticle; oil reovery Introduction Nanoscale science and technology is a young field that covers nearlyevery discipline of science and engineering The research on nanotechnology is evolving and expanding in such a rapid pace that the existing and potential applications can be considered almost endless An emerging application of nanotechnology in oil reservoir engineering is developing new types of nanofluids for EOR, drilling, and so on Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles in a base fluid, which is commonly water or organic liquids These fluids are prepared by introducing small volumetric fractions of nanoparticles into the liquid phase in order to enhance or improve some of the fluid properties Recent investigations revealed that nanomaterials have impressive characters for engineering applications Moreover, nanofluids can be designed to be compatible with reservoir fluids/rocks and be environmentally friendly, and they may show improved transport through micro-channels in porous media (Evdokimov et al., 2006; Singh et al., 2010; Xiangling and Ohadi, 2010) Investigation of applicability of nanotechnology in EOR processes has received a great CONTACT Alireza Bahadori alireza.bahadori@scu.edu.au School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University Lismore Australia Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lpet ©  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 01:23 22 July 2016 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 1049 deal of attention in recent years The first requirement for application of nanoparticles in EOR processes is their ability to travel easily through the rock porous media i.e with minimal retention and formation damage Therefore the transport properties of nanoparticles in porous media have been considered a basic issue for many studies Rodriguez et al (2009) studied the transport properties of surface-treated silica nanoparticles, by injecting concentrated suspensions of the nanoparticles into sedimentary rocks of different lithologies and permeabilities Their observations indicate a weak, reversible attachment of particles to pore walls Yu et al (2010) introduced paramagnetic nanoparticles as potential EOR agents, which can be used in EOR processes to control the behavior of injected fluids by imposing an external field, or can be used to evaluate oil saturations and other properties of an EOR target formation Kanj et al (2009) carried out a series of core flood experiments to investigate the transport of nanoparticles in reservoir rocks and to identify the limiting size of nanoparticles to be used as in situ reservoir agents in the ARAB-D formation There have been some attempts to use nanoparticles to change wettability of reservoir rock Considering the micrometer scale of pore diameters in reservoir rock Adsorption of hydrophilic particles on the porous walls of an oil-wet reservoir rock can change it into a water-wet rock This will result in an increase in the relative permeability of the oil phase and thus a decrease in the relative permeability of the water phase and a decline in the water cut after water breakthrough Adsorption of particles with neutral wettability on porous walls will eliminate surface tension (Ju et al., 2002) Ju et al (2002) reported nanometer polysilicon materials that could change the wettability of porous surfaces Using experimental data, they developed a mathematical model and a simulator to simulate water injection dynamics under the conditions of hydrophobic polysilicon injection Later, Ju et al (2006) studied the mechanism of EOR using hydrophilic polysilicon nanoparticles for changing the wettability of porous media The results of numerical simulation showed that porosity and permeability would decline due to retention of hydrophilic polysilicon during its transport in porous media It was also shown that oil recovery can be enhanced obviously by flooding with suspension of hydrophilic polysilicon; polysilicon concentration of 2.0–3.0% by volume has been suggested for improving oil recovery (Ju et al., 2006) The mathematical model for transport and wettability alteration effect of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic polysilicon types have been later presented in another publication; the results of which have been shown to have good match with experimental data (Ju and Fan, 2009) Di et al (2010) used injection of solutions containing hydrophobic nanoparticles of SiO2 Their experimental observations showed that the hydrophobic nanoparticles of SiO2 could be adsorbed tightly on the surface of the porous wall to form a strong hydrophobic layer The core displacement experiments conducted on four core samples showed that the water-phase effective permeabilities of all cores after the treatment with hydrophobic nanoparticles increase, but at different rates An average increase in water-phase effective permeability has been reported to be about 47% for the tested core samples, which clearly shows that the flowing resistance of rock’s micro-channels decreases greatly after-treatment with hydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles (Di et al., 2010) Skauge et al (2010) investigated the oil mobilization properties of nanosilica particles through the mechanism of microscopic flow diversion by log jamming, which involves pore blocking and diversion of injection fluids in microscopic pore scale They used core floods by well-defined nanosized silica particles to investigate the oil mobilization properties of the silica nanoparticles and made a comparison with polymer floods and the combination of polymer and silica particles They used AEROSIL MOX 80 silica particle type with a concentration of 300 ppm for core flood experiments This paper highlights the behavior of hydrophobic nanosilica in aqueous solutions as agent to be implemented for EOR schemes in carbonates Displacement of the studied hydrophobic nanosilica was assessed using a core flooding apparatus Experimental 2.1 Materials In this work AEROSIL R816 was employed as hydrophobic nanosilica, which is made from SiO2 and an additive Figure depicts the image of AEROSIL R816 under TEM It is worth to mention that Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 01:23 22 July 2016 1050 M.-A AHMADI ET AL Figure  The image of silica nano particles observed under TEM AEROSIL R816 purchase from Degussa Company Physical properties of AEROSIL R816 are demonstrated in Table Thickening and thixotropic effects of nanosilica at a given concentration depend to a great extent on the intensity of the dispersing Therefore the dispersion method is of crucial importance As recommended by the producing companies, good results are achieved with ultrasonic homogenizer An ultrasonic homogenizer (UT-1200) has been used in this study to disperse the nanosilica particles in the aqueous media The silica powder was weighed, wetted by the dispersing media (i.e., water) and then dispersed using the ultrasonic homogenizer for more than 5–6 h A master suspension of fumed silica in water with a concentration up to wt% was prepared initially and suspensions with lower concentration were prepared by diluting the master suspension with distilled water, either with or without the master surfactant solution The characterization of the crude oil employed in this study is reported in Table Six different carbonate core samples were employed in this research and characterization of the aforementioned rock samples are illustrated in Table 2.2 Core Displacement This section summarizes the core flooding experiments A comprehensive series of high-pressure hightemperature (HPHT) core displacement experiments were carried out The experiments are done on different carbonate samples when they are water-wet They were about 10 cm long and 3.6 cm diameter Table  Physical properties of nanoparticles AEROSIL R  Behavior with respect to water Appearance BET-surface area, m /g Average primary particle size, nm Tapped density, g/L SiO , wt% Al O , wt% Fe O , wt% TiO , wt% HCl, wt% Partially hydrophobic Fluffy white powder  ±    ࣙ. ࣘ. ࣘ. ࣘ. ࣘ. Reprinted with permission from Ahmadi, M A., and Shadizadeh, S R () Adsorption of novel nonionic surfactant and particles mixture in carbonates: enhanced oil recovery implication Energy and Fuels :– Copyright  American Chemical Society PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 1051 Table  Composition of reservoir oil used in this study Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 01:23 22 July 2016 Dead oil Component mol% wt% HS CO N C C C IC NC IC NC C+ M.W C+ S.G C+ .    . . . . . . .  . .    . . . . . . . All the core flooding experiments were performed at 100°C The core holder overburden pressure was maintained at 1500 psig and rate of injection at all tests fixed at 0.1 cc/min Results and Discussion Core displacement experiments were performed for different concentrations of hydrophobic nanosilica Figure illustrates the curve of oil recovery factor versus corresponding injected pore volume via different concentrations of hydrophobic in core displacement experiments To produce the remaining and residual oil from reservoir rock by water injection method we should reduce interfacial tension between oil and water because reducing the IFT results reducing the capillary pressure and consequently more oils can be produced Furthermore, to avoid the fingering phenomenon in water injection we should reduce the mobility ratio between injection fluid and oil and to assess this goal we should increase viscosity of the injection fluid Hydrophobic nanosilica can reduce interfacial tension between oil and water along with increasing the viscosity of water (Ahmadi and Shadizadeh, 2014) Two main phenomena that contributed in oil production during nanoflooding are IFT reduction and increasing viscosity of solution Figure 2a shows curve of oil recovery factor (RF) versus relevant injected pore volume of brine As clear be seen from Figure 2a brine flooding can improve the ultimate RF up to 55.45% of OOIP Figure 2b depicts the variation of oil recovery factor against corresponding injected pore volume of 500 ppm of hydrophobic nanosilica As demonstrated in Figure 2b, by employing 500 ppm nanosilica in water phase the ultimate oil recovery factor increased to 57.24% of OOIP Figure 2c illustrates the changing of oil recovery factor versus relevant nanofluid injected pore volume for 1000 ppm of hydrophobic nanosilica As depicted in Figure 2c, via 1000 ppm of nanosilica in water phase the oil recovery factor increased and an ultimate RF raised to 61.23% of OOIP One of the reasons for this fact is lowering the interfacial tension between two immiscible phases (water and oil) and then reducing the mobility ratio between nanofluid Table  Core characterization which used in this study Core name G G G G G G Length, cm Average diameter, cm Area, cm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bulk volume, cm PV (Sw = ), m . . . . . . . . . . . . Porosity, % Absolute permeability, mD . . . . . . . . . . . . M.-A AHMADI ET AL Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 01:23 22 July 2016 1052 Figure  Oil recovery (%OOIP) as a function of volume injected for (a) brine flooding, (b) nanoflooding at  ppm, (c) nanoflooding at  ppm, (d) nanoflooding at  ppm, (e) nanoflooding at  ppm, (f) nanoflooding at  ppm, and (g) nano flooding at  ppm) Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 01:23 22 July 2016 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 1053 Figure  Relationship between ultimate recovery (%OOIP) and nanosilica concentration (ppm) and oil; however, another important reason is increasing the viscosity of water phases by adding nanosilica to injected fluid Figure 2d depicts the variation of oil recovery factor versus corresponding nanofluid injected pore volume with concentration of 1500 ppm hydrophobic nanosilica Figures 2d–g show the changing of oil recovery factor versus relevant nanofluid injected pore volume with concentration of 1500 ppm, 3000 ppm, 6000 ppm, and 10000 ppm hydrophobic nanosilica, correspondingly It is worth to mention that all the core flooding tests were carried out to determine the optimum concentration of hydrophobic nanosilica Secondary hydrophobic nanoflooding for 1500 ppm, 3000 ppm, 6000 ppm, and 10000 ppm recovers 64.045%, 74.426%, 79.13%, and 80.234% OOIP, Respectively Two main factors were caused 10000 ppm of surfactant can improved recovery up to 80.234% of OOIP, first reason is lowering IFT between two immiscible phases (water and oil) and consequently formation of microemulsion between oil and nanofluid and second reason is reduction of mobility ratio between oil and nanofluid by rising the viscosity of water Figure shows ultimate recovery (%OOIP) as function of hydrophobic nanosilica concentration Conclusions The use of combination of hydrophobic nanosilica for EOR implication in a naturally fractured reservoir was systematically investigated The following deductions can be extracted based on outcomes from this work: • Hydrophilic nanosilica can improved oil recovery up to 80.234 for 10000 ppm of nanosilica in water solution • Recovery efficiency of nanosilica gradually increased from 6000 ppm to 10000 ppm of nanosilica • The significant phenomenon that enhanced the oil recovery factor of nanosilica flooding is reducing the interfacial tension between injection fluid and oil and then can create high viscosity micro emulsion This process is EOR by mean of IFT reduction However, increasing in viscosity of injected fluid and then reduce of mobility ration between oil and injected fluid is a second phenomenon for improvement of ultimate recovery and this method is EOR by mean of mobility control (mobility reduction) 1054 M.-A AHMADI ET AL Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 01:23 22 July 2016 References Ahmadi, M A., and Shadizadeh, S R (2012) Adsorption of novel nonionic surfactant and particles mixture in carbonates: enhanced oil recovery implication Energy Fuels 26:4655–4663 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Symposium, Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 24–28 Xiangling, K., and Ohadi, M (2010) Applications of micro and nano technologies in the oil and gas industry - overview of the recent progress SPE 138241, Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, November 1–4 Yu, H., Kotsmar, C., Yoon, K Y., Ingram, D R., Johnston, K P., Bryant, S L., and Huh, C (2010) Transport and retention of aqueous dispersions of paramagnetic nanoparticles in reservoir rocks SPE 129887, SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 24–28  ... http://dx.doi.org/./.. Evaluation of the ability of the hydrophobic nanoparticles of SiO in the EOR process through carbonate rock samples Mohammad-Ali Ahmadia , Zainal Ahmadb , Le Thi Kim... of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) should be applied for more recovery from these reservoirs In this study the ability of hydrophobic nanoparticles of sio2 in EOR process through carbonate rock samples. .. the porous walls of an oil-wet reservoir rock can change it into a water-wet rock This will result in an increase in the relative permeability of the oil phase and thus a decrease in the relative