Experimental Investigation of Effective Factors on Foam Stability of Surfactant Solution in the Presence of Co-Solvent and its Effect on Oil Recovery

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Institute of Petroleum Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Foam injection for the purpose of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) process is one of the approaches of chemical EOR. In this method, in addition to using the surfactant, other chemical additives are used to achieve ultralow IFT which result in mobilizing the residual oil of the primary and secondary recovery stage. Foam generation causes to achieve the mobility ratio of less than 1, and then the foam generation improves volumetric sweep efficiency. In foam flooding, foam stability is one of the determining parameters for increasing  oil recovery. Generating the most stable foam is one of the subjects of the recent researches on this kind of EOR process in stand point of selection of type and concentration of chemicals. In this study, effects of salinity, surfactant concentration, and the type and the concentration of co-solvent were investigated on foam stability. Optimized stability was gained in different co-solvents. This optimum was used in flooding process to investigate its effect on oil recovery.  Butyric acid and 1-butanol were two used co-solvent. The most stable foam was resulted from the samples which utilized butyric acid as co-solvent. Maximum oil recovery of 44% of OOIP has observed in solution with 1-butanol as co-solvent, which is not displaced by water flooding. Moreover, observing the maximum oil recovery validates the efficacy of this technique.
 

Keywords


[1]. Liu M., Andrianov A. and Rossen W. R., “Sweep efficiency in CO2 foam simulations with oil,” in IOR 2011-16th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, 2011.##
[2]. Rossen W. R., Van Duijn C., Nguyen Q. P., Shen C., and Vikingstad A. K., “Injection strategies to overcome gravity segregation in simultaneous gas and water injection into homogeneous reservoirs,” SPE Journal, Vol. 15, pp. 76-90, 2010.##
[3]. Vikingstad R. X., Andrianov A. and Zitha P., “Investigation of immiscible and miscible foam for enhancing oil recovery,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 49, pp. 1910-1919, 2009.##
[4]. Christensen J. R., Stenby E. H. and Skauge A., "Review of WAG field experience," SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, Vol. 4, pp. 97-106, 2001.
[5]. Crogh N. A., Eide K. and Morterud S. E., "WAG injection at the statfjord field a success story," in European Petroleum Conference, 2002.
[6]. Gauglitz P. A, Friedmann F., Kam S. I. and Rossen W. R., “Foam generation in homogeneous porous media,” Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 57, pp. 4037-4052, 2002.##
[7]. Friedmann F., Chen W., and Gauglitz P., “Experimental and simulation study of high-temperature foam displacement in porous media," SPE Reservoir Engineering, Vol. 6, pp. 37-45, 1991.##
[8]. Kovscek A. R., Patzek T. W., and Radke C. J., “Mechanistic foam flow simulation in heterogeneous and multidimensional porous media,” SPE JOURNAL-RICHARDSON-, Vol. 2, pp. 511-526, 1997.##
[9]. Kamal M. and Marsden S. Jr, “Displacement of a micellar slug foam in unconsolidated porous media,” in Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, 1973.##
[10]. Lawson J. B. and Reisberg J., “Alternate slugs of gas and dilute surfactant for mobility control during chemical flooding,” in SPE/DOE Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposium, 1980.##
[11]. Turta A. T. and Singhal A. K., “Field foam applications in enhanced oil recovery projects: screening and design aspects,” in IOGCEC: International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition in China, 1998.##
[12]. Patzek T. W., “Field applications of steam foam for mobility improvement and profile control,” SPE Reservoir Engineering, Vol. 11, pp. 79-86, 1996.##
[13]. Skauge A., Aarra M., Surguchev L., Martinsen H., and Rasmussen L., “Foam-assisted WAG: Experience from the Snorre field,” in SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, 2002.##
[14]. Zhdanov S. A., Amiyan A., Surguchev L. M., Castanier L. M. and Hanssen J. E., “Application of foam for gas and water shut-off: review of field experience,” in European Petroleum Conference, 1996.##
[15]. Schramm L. L., “Foams: fundamentals and applications in the petroleum industry,” Vol. 242: American Chemical Society Washington, DC, Oct. 1994.##
[16]. Dicksen T., Hirasaki G. J. and Miller C. A., “Conditions for foam generation in homogeneous porous media,” in SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, 2002.##
[17]. Fried A. N., “Foam-drive process for increasing the recovery of oil,” Bureau of Mines, San Francisco, Calif.(USA). San Francisco Petroleum Research Lab.1960.##
[18]. Hirasaki G. and Lawson J., “Mechanisms of foam flow in porous media: apparent viscosity in smooth capillaries,” Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal, Vol. 25, pp. 176-190, 1985.##
[19]. Srivastava M., “Foam assisted low interfacial tension enhanced oil recovery,” Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin, USA, 2010.##
[20]. Ma K., Lopez-Salinas J. L., Puerto M. C., Miller C. A., Biswal S. L., and Hirasaki G. J., “Estimation of parameters for the simulation of foam flow through porous media. Part 1: The dry-out effect,” Energy & Fuels, Vol. 27, pp. 2363-2375, 2013.##
[21]. Eaves D., “Handbook of polymer foams,” Polimeri, Vol. 25, pp. 1-2, 2004.##
[22]. Sheng J., “Modern chemical enhanced oil recovery: theory and practice”, Gulf Professional Publishing, 2010.##
[23]. Du D.-X., Beni A. N., Farajzadeh R., and Zitha P. L., “Effect of water solubility on carbon dioxide foam flow in porous media: an X-ray computed tomography study,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 47, pp. 6298-6306, 2008.##
[24]. Jensen J. and Friedmann F., “Physical and chemical effects of an oil phase on the propagation of foam in porous media,” in SPE California Regional Meeting, 1987.##
[25]. Mannhardt K., Novosad J. and Schramm L., “Foam/oil interactions at reservoir conditions,” in Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, pp. 287-300, 1998.##
[26]. Farajzadeh R., Andrianov A., Krastev R., Hirasaki G., and Rossen W. R., “Foam–oil interaction in porous media: implications for foam assisted enhanced oil recovery,” Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 183, pp. 1-13, 2012.##
[27]. Kuhlman M. I., “Visualizing the effect of light oil on CO2 foams,” Journal of Petroleum Technology, Vol. 42, pp. 902-908, 1990.##
[28]. Schramm L. L., Turta A. T. and Novosad J. J., “Microvisual and coreflood studies of foam interactions with a light crude oil,” SPE Reservoir Engineering, Vol. 8, pp. 201-206, 1993.##
[29]. Andrianov A., Farajzadeh R., Mahmoodi Nick M., Talanana M. and Zitha P. L., “Immiscible foam for enhancing oil recovery: bulk and porous media experiments,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 51, pp. 2214-2226, 2012.##
[30]. Vikingstad A. K., Skauge A., Høiland H. and Aarra M., “Foam–oil interactions analyzed by static foam tests,” Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, Vol. 260, pp. 189-198, 2005.##
[31]. Liu Y., Grigg R. B. and Bai B., “Salinity pH and surfactant concentration effects on CO2-Foam,” in SPE International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry, 2005.##
[32]. Shokrollahi A., Ghazanfari M. H. and Badakhshan A., “Application of foam floods for enhancing heavy oil recovery through stability analysis and core flood experiments,” The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol. 92, pp. 1975-1987, 2014.##
[33]. Sanz C. and Pope G., “Alcohol-free chemical flooding: from surfactant screening to coreflood design,” in International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry, 1995, pp. 117-128.##
[34]. Levitt D., Jackson A., Heinson C., Britton L. N., Malik T., Dwarakanath V., Pope G. A., “Identification and evaluation of high-performance EOR surfactants,” SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, Vol. 12, pp. 243-253, 2009.##
[35]. Flaaten A., Nguyen Q. P., Pope G. A. and Zhang J., “A systematic laboratory approach to low-cost high-performance chemical flooding,” SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, Vol. 12, pp. 713-723, 2009.##
[36]. Li X.-q., Chai J.-l., Shang S.-c., Li H.-l., Lu J.-j., Yang B. and Y.-t. Wu., “Phase behavior of alcohol-free Microemulsion systems containing Butyric Acid as a Cosurfactant,” Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, Vol. 55, pp. 3224-3228, 2010.##
[37]. Lohateeraparp P., Wilairuengsuwan P., Saiwan C., Sabatini D. A. and Harwell J. H., “Study of alcohol-free microemulsion systems containing fatty acids as cosurfactants,” Journal of Surfactants and Detergents, Vol. 6, pp. 15-24, 2003.##
[38]. Eriksson L., Design of experiments: principles and applications,: MKS Umetrics AB, 2008.##
[39]. Loginova L. P., Yakovleva E. Y., Galat M. N. and Boichenko A. P., “Effect of aliphatic alcohols and aliphatic carboxylic acids on the critical micelle concentration and counter-ion binding degree of sodium dodecylsulfate,” Journal of Molecular Liquids, Vol. 145, pp. 177-181, 2009.##