An interface-analyzing technique to evaluate the heavy oil swelling in presence of nickel oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Metal oxide nanoparticles, with their unique adsorption capacity, are able to reduce the asphaltene aggregation and precipitation onto the rock surface or tubing wall. The oil phase and the gas phase, which might be from the gas injection for Enhanced-Oil-Recovery (EOR) purposes or solution gas, would have different interface properties in the presence of metal oxide nanoparticles. In this investigation, the effect of NiO nanoparticles would be studied on the liquid–gas system interface of methane gas and different heavy oil samples. In details, Fluid behavior such as Surface to Volume Ratio (SVR) of the oil drop or the amount of swelled gas into the oil drop would be attended at a wide range of reservoir pressures and oil asphaltene content at the reservoir temperature. The results show that the presence of NiO nanoparticles can decrease the asphaltene aggregation and accumulation at the interface; in other words, it would increase the drop swelling and reduce the SVR increasing rate as pressure or asphaltene content increases. The key role of NiO nanoparticles, which resulted in the above-mentioned phenomena, is its high adsorption capacity. It means that in the presence of NiO nanoparticles, asphaltene molecules tend to be adsorbed by these nanomaterials instead of aggregating around each other or at the interface of gas and liquid.