Nanometer-Scale CO2-Shale Oil Minimum Miscibility Pressure Calculations Based on Modified PR-EOS

Abstract

CO2 flooding is recognized as an efficient method for enhancing shale oil recovery, while CO2-oil MMP (minimum miscibility pressure) in the micro-nanoscale is a crucial parameter. This paper presents a method for calculating the MMPs of pure hydrocarbons (C4H10, C6H14, C8H18, and C10H22) and CO2 systems in nanopores (3 nm to 10 nm) with temperature ranging from 290.15 K to 373.15 K. Firstly, we modify the Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR-EOS) by considering the influence of confinement effect and capillary pressure in nanopores. Secondly, the flash calculation algorithm is employed to determine whether the oil and gas phases in nanopores have reached an equilibrium state according to the equality of the fugacity of the two phases. Thirdly, we calculate the interfacial tension (IFT) between the two phases using the Macleod-Sugden equation. When the extrapolated IFT is zero, we treat the corresponding pressure as the MMP of the CO2-oil system in nanopores. Simulation results indicate that the calculated MMP using this method has a relative error of about 0.62% compared to the MMP calculated using the multiple mixing cell (MMC) method, indicating high reliability for MMP prediction. Moreover, the measured MMP at the nanoscale is generally smaller than that in the bulk phase due to the influence of the confinement effect. The MMP is positively correlated with the reservoir temperature, the carbon atom number in alkanes, and the nanopore radius.