Experimental Study of Key Effect Factors and Simulation on Oil Displacement Efficiency for a Novel Modified Polymer BD-HMHEC

Chao Wang,Pengcheng Liu,Zhe Yuan,Zhenhua Xu,Yanling Wang

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22259-z

Abstract

A novel synthetic hydrophobically modified hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) using bromododecane (BD) was developed in our previous paper, which we denote as BD-HMHEC. A series of one dimensional core displacement experiments were continually conducted to evaluate the key effect factors on the resistance factor (FR) and residual resistance factor (FRR) of BD-HMHEC solution, including polymer concentration, core permeability and injection rate. Results have shown that BD-HMHEC has higher FR and FRR and has much better oil displacement performance than HEC during oil displacement process. Meanwhile, compared with HEC flooding, the key effects on oil displacement efficiency of BD-HMHEC flooding were investigated, including polymer concentration, injection slug and injection rate. A numerical simulation study has been developed by the Computer Modelling Group (CMG) simulator. Results have shown that BD-HMHEC flooding could cause better oil displacement efficiency than HEC flooding at the same condition. As indicated by one dimensional core displacement experimental results, the further incremental oil recovery of switching to BD-HMHEC flooding could increase by 7.0~8.0% after hydrolyzed polyacryamide (HPAM) flooding. The studies indicate that BD-HMHEC has great potential application during enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes in oilfields.

Highlights

Many different monomers and hydrophobic monomers have been used to prepare acrylamide based on HM-polymers by free radical polymerization[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]
Results have shown that BD-HMHEC has higher FR and FRR and much better oil displacement performance than hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC)
(2) The effects on oil displacement efficiency of BD-HMHEC and HEC flooding were evaluated by core tests, which show that BD-HMHEC flooding has a much better oil displacement performance than HEC flooding

Summary

Introduction

Many different monomers and hydrophobic monomers have been used to prepare acrylamide based on HM-polymers by free radical polymerization[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Were conducted to investigate the key effects on the resistance factor (FR) and residual resistance factor (FRR) of BD-HMHEC solution in contrast with HEC solution, including polymer concentration, core permeability and injection rate. Compared with HEC flooding, the key effects on oil displacement efficiency of BD-HMHEC flooding were investigated, including polymer concentration, injection slug and injection rate. In order to verify the different effects on HEC flooding and BD-HMHEC flooding, the paper evaluated the oil displacement performance by Computer Modelling Group (CMG) simulator. One dimensional core displacement experiments were conducted to further investigate the oil displacement efficiency of BD-HMHEC solution following conventional polymer flooding (e.g. HPAM) and water flooding at different permeability cores

Methods

Results

Conclusion