Abstract
Summary A three-dimensional (3D), multiphase, multicomponent micellar/polymer flooding simulator has been used to investigate the process performance under different conditions of reservoir heterogeneity (stratifications) and mobility ratios. The significance of crossflow has been studied by relating chemical flood recoveries to the effective length-to-thickness ratio and the transverse dispersion number of the reservoir. A long-standing question in micellar/polymer flooding concerns whether small, high-concentration chemical slugs are preferred to large lower-concentration slugs. This aspect of slug size vs. slug concentration has been studied in 3D in the presence of heterogeneity. Finally, chromatographic separation of surfactant and alcohol has been investigated and discussed. It is found that a salinity gradient can be tailored to minimize this separation tendency and that this in fact is the single most important factor, even when compared with adsorption and partitioning. This is a highly favorable result that can and should be exploited to improve the practical design of micellar/polymer floods.
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