Abstract
Foam injection is a promising solution for control of mobility in oil and gas field exploration and development, including enhanced oil recovery, matrix-acidization treatments, contaminated-aquifer remediation and gas leakage prevention. This study presents a numerical investigation of foam behavior in a porous medium. Fractional flow method is applied to describe steady-state foam displacement in the entrance region. In this model, foam flow for the cases of excluding and including capillary pressure and for two types of gas, nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are investigated. Effects of pertinent parameters are also verified. Results indicate that the foam texture strongly governs foam flow in porous media. Required entrance region may be quite different for foam texture to accede local equilibrium, depending on the case and physical properties that are used. According to the fact that the aim of foaming of injected gas is to reduce gas mobility, results show that CO2 is a more proper injecting gas than N2. There are also some ideas presented here on improvement in foam displacement process. This study will provide an insight into future laboratory research and development of full-field foam flow in a porous medium.
Highlights
The worldwide economy, technology advancement, and population growth have led to a significant increase in energy demand
In the study done by Persoff et al in 1991, the steady-state water saturation was measured over a range of injected water fractional flow from 0.008 to 0.20 in a sandstone sample with porosity and permeability of 0.25 and 1 Darcy, respectively (Persoff et al 1989)
This study presents the influence of pertinent parameters on foam behavior in the entrance region of porous media
Summary
Greek symbols φ Porosity λg Gas mobility, m2 (Pa s)−1 λw Water mobility, m2 (Pa s)−1 μg Gas viscosity in the presence of foam, Pa s μ0g Gas viscosity in the absence of foam, Pa s μw Viscosities of water, Pa s. B.C Boundary condition EOR Enhanced oil recovery FOK First-order kinetic IOR Improved oil recovery LE Local equilibrium
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