Thermodynamics of Complex Fluids for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery
Open Access
- Author:
- Magzymov, Daulet
- Graduate Program:
- Energy and Mineral Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 18, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Russell Taylor Johns, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Russell Taylor Johns, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Zuleima T Karpyn, Committee Member
Gregory R King, Committee Member
Themis Matsoukas, Outside Member
Mort D Webster, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- thermodynamics
enhanced oil recovery
complex fluids
chemical EOR; EOR; phase behavior
microemulsion
flash calculation
characteristic length
solubilization
alkali
soap
viscous layer
emulsion
k-value
partitioning
viscosity
percolation
composition
ternary diagram
lowsal
low salinity
waterflooding
reservoir simulation
kinetics
dispersion
reactive transport
porous media
transport
thermodynamics enhanced oil recovery
EOR
chemical EOR
surfactant
phase behavior
equilibrium
K-value - Abstract:
- Chemical enhanced oil recovery methods have significant potential to improve oil recovery after waterflooding. It is relatively easy to improve recovery in the lab under controlled conditions. However, field-scale implementations do not yield the same recovery results for a variety of reasons that include different mixing levels from the lab to the field, and also that species travel at different velocities. Moreover, the modeling of physicochemical phenomena, which are involved in the process, can be inaccurate or lack predictive capabilities. Such phenomena include phase behavior, viscosity, and reaction kinetics modeling. In this dissertation, we present modeling improvements and a better understanding of those physicochemical processes. The improvements will help to model accurately and to design successfully improved oil recovery scenarios. This dissertation presents the following research outcomes to model physicochemical phenomena involved in chemical enhanced oil recovery. Chapter I covers introductory remarks on chemical enhanced oil recovery. Chapter II focusses on the experimental study of alkali-cosolvent phase behavior using acidic crude oil. We study the possibility of using alkali for in situ surfactant generation, over costly synthetic surfactants. The chapter proposes a mechanism that explains the formation of water-in-oil macroemulsion, which is traditionally overlooked. Chapter III discusses an updated flash calculation algorithm with variable characteristic length in microemulsion phase. Chapter VI presents a microemulsion phase behavior equation of state algorithm that accounts for equilibrium K-values, and surfactant partitioning. For the first time, we propose equations to constrain the size of two-phase lobes. These constraints are based on constant K-value limiting conditions. Chapter V presents a compositional viscosity model for microemulsion systems. We present a ‘viscosity map’ approach that accounts for the percolation threshold locus in compositional space. The compositional aspect of microemulsion viscosity is typically overlooked in the literature. Chapter VI is focused on modeling the effects of reaction kinetics and dispersion during low salinity waterflooding. Reaction kinetics is typically ignored in reservoir simulation. We show that oil recovery is affected when reaction kinetics is included in the modeling, for example, recovery fronts are delayed based on the ratio of convection and reaction rates. Chapter VII concludes this dissertation. The common theme of this dissertation addresses the thermodynamics of complex fluids in the context of chemical enhanced oil recovery.