A novel experimental-theoretical method to improve MMP estimation using VIT technique

Abstract

In the gas injection process for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the interfacial tension (IFT) and the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) are two key parameters for evaluating the miscibility condition. The vanishing interfacial tension (VIT) method is an efficient method for measuring the interfacial tension of oil and gas versus pressure and can estimate the minimum miscibility pressure. A problem in the VIT test of a hydrocarbon system is that during this test, oil and gas densities vary due to the composition variation of both phases. But in the conventional interfacial measurement, this issue is ignored, and the initial and non-equilibrium densities are utilized for estimating the interfacial tension. In this study, it is tried to nominate a novel method for estimating the most accurate value of IFT. Hence, for this purpose, first a VIT test has been performed for a hydrocarbon gas and a live oil system and using the axisymmetric drop shape analysis (ADSA), the oil droplet has been analyzed, and the geometry factor, which has been defined in this paper, was calculated. After that, the volume of oil droplet and the gas have been measured and were used for vapor-liquid-equilibrium (VLE) or flash calculation using Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR-EOS). By VLE calculation fulfillment, the final composition of two phases is determined. Eventually, the densities of two phases have been calculated for VIT modification. Finally, the IFT results were plotted versus the pressure steps, and the MMP were estimated. Furthermore, to evaluate the results of VIT test and its modification, slim tube displacement (STD) test, which is known as the most reliable laboratory method for measuring the MMP in the oil industry, has been performed. The results show that the values obtained for MMP values for the VIT test with the corrected densities which are lower than the values obtained for the VIT test for not-corrected densities and the suggested experimental-theoretical method has been estimated the MMP more accurately. The MMP obtained by VIT test and modified VIT method was equal to 3858.72 and 3722.0 psi, respectively. Meanwhile, the slim tube test has measured the MMP equal to 3667.13 psi.