Effect of Synthesized Biopolymer from Coconut Residue as Drag Reducing Agent in Water Injection Well

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, commercial polymers have been utilized in oil and gas industries as drag reducing agent (DRA) to minimize the pressure drop and improve the injectivity in water flooding systems. Several studies have been carried out to find an alternative for commercial polymers as drag reducing agents (DRAs) from natural and biodegradable polymers such as carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) which are more environmental friendly, yet performing as good as the synthetic polymer. In this paper, a new eco-friendly DRA is extracted from organic materials (coconut residue) to replace the commercial polymer, due to its abundance and ability to perform as effective as commercial polymer in lowering pressure losses and accelerating the flow in oil and gas pipelines. The objective of this study was aimed to demonstrate the synthesizing process of biopolymer from coconut residue, then test biopolymer DRA impacts on formation permeability after injecting them into the reservoir, and finally studying the mechanical degradation of biopolymer DRA by exposing the solutions to a high mechanical stirring speed using viscometer device. An experimental study is conducted using a benchtop permeability system to justify if the DRAs have any impact on formation permeability. Three core samples were flooded with brine solution of 10000 ppm and DRA solution of 50 ppm at three different injection rates 1 ml/min, 3 ml/min, and 5 ml/min consecutively. The mechanical degradation of the DRA is examined by exposing 0.5–1.0% solutions of biopolymer to a high stirring speed ranged from 500 rpm to 1500 rpm for 60 min to perceive whether such influence is noticeable. The result showed the solution of 1.0% concentration has higher mechanical degradation compared to a lower molecular weight solution of 0.5% concentration.