Effects of Foam Quality and flow Rate on CO2-Foam Behavior at Reservoir Conditions

Abstract

Abstract This paper reports a series of steady-state CO2-foam flow experiments performed at reservoir conditions of 101 F and 2100 psig. The effects of foam quality and flow rate on foam flow behavior were investigated. The foam experiments were conducted by injecting CO2 and surfactant solution simultaneously into a core saturated with surfactant solution at various total flow rates and foam qualities (CO2 fractions). A commercial surfactant (Chaser TM CD 1045) was used at 2500 ppm concentration in a 4 wt% synthetic brine. Our results have shown that the foam mobility (total mobility of CO2/surfactant solution) decreased with increasing foam quality ranging from 20% to 80% for flow rates of 4.2, 8.4, and 16.8 cc/hr. The foam resistance factor increased with increasing foam quality ranging from 33.3% to 80% for flow rates of 4.2, 8.4, and 16.8 cc/hr. A minimum foam resistance factor was found between foam qualities of 20% and 33.3% for flow rates of 8.4 and 16.8 cc/hr. The foam mobility increased with increasing flow rate ranging from 4.2 to 16.8 cc/hr for foam qualities of 20%, 33.3%, 50%, 66.7%, and 80%. Also, the resistance factor decreased with increasing flow rate ranging from 4.2 to 16.8 cc/hr for foam qualities of 20%, 33.3%, 50%, 66.7%, and 80%. P. 265