Low‐cost pyrophyllite‐based microfluidic device for the study of enhanced oil recovery

Abstract

This work proposed a novel method for the fabrication of pyrophyllite-based microfluidic devices for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Pyrophyllite has good heat resistance, corrosion resistance and similar molecular structure to quartz sandstone, and is suitable for EOR research. A rectangular matrix of the pore structure is designed, representing an idealised porous medium and then fabricated on the surface of pyrophyllite substrate by using the micro-milling method. Finally, a layer of sealing film was applied on the surface of substrate to finish the bonding process. A droplet generator was also fabricated for the demonstration of the proposed technology. A series of displacement experiments with water flooding and surfactant flooding were conducted and the result was carefully analysed and discussed. Compared with the previous study using polymer-based or glass-based microfluidic devices as micromodels for the displacement study in oil recovery process, the surface properties of pyrophyllite are more close to real reservoirs and have compelling advantages as bulk material for microfluidic devices for the EOR study. This work has wide potential applications as the micromodels in EOR research, the proposed fabrication protocols of the pyrophyllite-based microfluidic device are rapid and low-cost, the on-site field test could also be conducted with the proposed technology.