Adsorption effects on CO2-oil minimum miscibility pressure in tight reservoirs

Abstract

CO2 miscible injection holds immense potential for enhancing tight oil recovery, where achieving the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is pivotal. Adsorption of CO2 and oil in pores affects the CO2-oil MMP in tight reservoirs, necessitating precise nanoscale MMP calculations and understanding influencing factors. Here, we applied a modified Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR-EOS) for nanoscale MMP calculations, incorporating adsorption layers and effective molar volume to describe adsorption effects. Validation against molecular simulations and nanofluidic experiments shows a maximum deviation of 4.6 %. We found that in nanopores, achieving miscibility demands less CO2 than in bulk. The CO2-oil MMP reduces as pore size decreasing, influenced by adsorption, critical point shift and capillarity. At 5 nm, the MMP is 11.12 MPa, 27.8 % lower than the bulk value (15.4 MPa). Adsorption intensifies this reduction by curtailing free molecules and effective pore radius, and becomes more pronounced for lighter hydrocarbon mixtures. However, the nanoscale CO2-oil MMP is equal to the bulk value when rp ≥ 350 nm. Furthermore, a maximum MMP and the corresponding transition temperature exist for each pore size, and increase as pore size increasing. This method provides a valuable tool for optimizing CO2 miscible injection and carbon storage in challenging nanoscale-pore reservoirs.