Regular Article
Experimental study and numerical modeling for enhancing oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs by nanoparticle flooding
1
Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
2
Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, Tehran, Iran
3
Discipline of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, University Of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, King George V Avenue, Durban 4041, South Africa
* Corresponding author: amir_h_mohammadi@yahoo.com
Received:
25
April
2018
Accepted:
22
October
2018
Nowadays, nanotechnology has become a very attractive subject in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) researches. In the current study, a carbonate system has been selected and first the effects of nanoparticles on the rock and fluid properties have been experimentally investigated and then the simulation and numerical modeling of the nanofluid injection for enhanced oil recovery process have been studied. After nanofluid treatment, experimental results have shown wettability alteration. A two-phase flow mathematical model and a numerical simulator considering wettability alteration have been developed. The numerical simulation results show that wettability alteration from oil-wet to water-wet due to presence of nanoparticles can lead to 8–10% increase in recovery factor in comparison with normal water flooding. Different sensitivity analyses and injection scenarios have been considered and assessed. Using numerical modeling, wettability alteration process and formation damage caused by entrainment and entrapment of nanoparticles in porous media have been proved. Finally, the net rate of nanoparticles’ loss in porous media has been investigated.
© M. Sepehri et al., published by IFP Energies nouvelles, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
