Flow and Transport Phenomena in Geosystems and Petroleum Engineering: Advances and Applications of Silica-Based Nanofluids for Low-Salinity Water Flooding and Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes in Oil Reservoirs

Abstract:

Optimization of oil recovery from a petroleum reservoir is critical not only to meet increasing energy demands but also for economic reasons. Nanotechnology and nanoparticles offer novel technical and engineering possibilities in the field of multiphase flow and the exploitation of petroleum reservoirs. This study aims at investigating the effects of silica nanoparticles and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) surfactant on assisted water flooding and enhanced oil recovery processes in sandpack simulation of water-wet reservoir under low-salinity environment. Laboratory sandpack columns simulating water-wet reservoirs were prepared by saturating them first with a 1.0 wt% brine (i.e., NaCl) and then followed by an injection of a light crude oil (West Texas Intermediate). The resulting oil-brine mixture within the sandpack column was then subject to water flooding (non-sequenced recovery) or enhanced oil recovery processes (sequenced recovery) using brine and/or surfactant as controls as well as low (0.01 wt%) and high (0.1 wt%) silica-based nanofluids. Low silica-based nanofluid concentration yielded low fractional and cumulative oil recovery results in the water flooding process of oil recovery. On the contrary, the low silica-based nanofluid concentration was observed to be the most effective with enhanced oil recovery process. Our findings allow the selection of optimal concentrations of silica NPs to be used for either water flooding or enhanced oil recovery processes in order to increase the oil extraction efficiency.