Laboratory Investigation of the Effects of Surfactant Release in a Sandstone Reservoir on Increasing Oil Recovery in Tertiary Injection of Foam Stabilized with a Mixture of Surfactant and Nanoparticles

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Petroleum, Mining and Materials, CT.C, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

10.22078/pr.2024.5383.3395

Abstract

Injection of nanoparticle-stabilized foam has been considered by the oil industry due to its high stability. In this study, the interaction between nanoparticles and surfactants as well as the hysteresis of the foam injection sequence are investigated. For this purpose, secondary and tertiary core injection experiments were performed on synthetic glass core to investigate the oil recovery behavior of foam stabilized with calcium carbonate nanoparticles and SDS surfactant in sandstone reservoirs. According to the results, the secondary oil recovery by foam stabilized with a mixture of 0.04 wt.% of surfactant and 0.1% w of nanoparticles is significantly higher than the foam stabilized with counterpart nanoparticle and surfactant. In all cases, tertiary oil recovery was significantly lower than the tertiary mode. This phenomenon was attributed to the diffusion regime governing tertiary recovery compared to the convective regime in the secondary injection. In order to prove this hypothesis, the aging process performed in the core injection experiments was repeated in the contact angle device. In the diffusion regime, the Nano fluid could not change the wettability of the glass to more water-wetness. Moreover, the surfactant solution reduced the glass oil-wetness by only 5 degrees. Furthermore, the mixture of surfactant and nanoparticles altered the wettability by 16 degrees. Additionally, the nanofluid, surfactant solution, and mixture of surfactant and nanoparticles changed the initial wettability from approximately 150° to 76°, 45°, and 23°, respectively, confirming a higher rate of convective regime in wettability alteration. Based on surface tension experiments, the superior behavior of the surfactant and nanoparticle mixture was attributed to the adsorption of surfactant molecules on the nanoparticles and the surface activation of the nanoparticles.

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References

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Journal of Petroleum Research
Volume 35, 1404-6 - Serial Number 145
March and April 2026
Pages 182-199

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