Abstract
We present a comprehensive workflow to obtain the best insights into the viscoelastic behavior of polymers. Viscoelasticity is depicted in most cases by the current commercially available polymers used for EOR applications. The phenomenon is debated to be one of the reasons for additional oil recovery during polymer flooding applications. It is somehow accepted that polymer increases volumetric sweep efficiency owing to improved mobility ratio. Recently researches have explained that flooding polymers in porous media with elastic characteristics could recover additional oil, due to the improved microscale oil displacement (pore-scale). This study focuses on the analysis of polymer viscoelasticity based on single-phase core, sand-pack and capillary tube (CT) experiments coupled with their detailed rheological characterization, in order to evaluate polymer behavior in porous media. A combination of hydrolyzed polyacrylamides (HPAM) polymers as well as a bio polymer is presented throughout this evaluation. The evaluation of the data is addressed on the basis of pressure drop across the pores, separating the shear associated pressure by the extensional thickening associated pressure. Apart from that, viscoelastic dependence of the converging-diverging geometry has been experimented. Based on the observed behavior through porous media, HPAM polymers are compared with bio polymers. Moreover, the behavior of solutions with induced mechanical degradation (pre-sheared) is compared with non-sheared solutions. Similarly, concentrations with different polymer solutions are evaluated. The results obtained in this work allow for additional understanding of polymer solutions behavior in flooding applications. Furthermore The results support the definition of optimized workflows to assess their behavior under flow through porous media. Finally this evaluation helps to describe the parameter that defines polymer viscoelastic properties.
Highlights
Among chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods, polymer flooding is the most widely used due to its simplicity and low cost
This study focuses on the analysis of polymer viscoelasticity based on single-phase core, sand-pack and capillary tube (CT) experiments coupled with their detailed rheological characterization, in order to evaluate polymer behavior in porous media
This study focuses on the analysis of polymers based on single-phase core, sand-pack and capillary tube (CT) experiments coupled with their rheological behavior characterization, in order to evaluate and predict polymer behavior in porous media
Summary
Among chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods, polymer flooding is the most widely used due to its simplicity and low cost. Polymers are used to increase viscosity of aqueous phase which improves mobility ratio and form a uniform flood front to displace oil [1], [2]. It has been as a technically and commercially proven technology and it is considered as one of the most mature chemical flooding methods. Shear rate experienced by a polymer while flowing through a capillary tube has been studied by Wei et al [12] apparent viscosity in porous media (core plugs) has been calculated in literature using Darcy’s formula [7]
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