Patterned Wettability of Oil and Water in Porous Media

Abstract

The microscopic wettability state of porous media, based on glass bead packings, after crude oil drainage of brine was investigated using X-ray micro-CT, white-light profilometry, and electron microscopy. Tomography revealed that the bulk residual brine occupied around 10% of void space, located in smaller pores and as pendular rings around bead contacts, in agreement with numerical simulations of drainage. The bead packing contained planar slabs of mica, quartz, and oxidized silicon wafer, which after flushing and disassembly of the pack allowed analysis of their wettability alteration due to deposition of asphaltenes from the crude oil. These substrates exhibited an overall pattern of rings with clean interiors, matching the brine pendular ring size inferred from experimental and simulated drainage, and asphaltene deposition in their exteriors, verifying the mixed wet model of oil reservoir wettability. The extent of asphaltene intrusion into ring interiors and completeness of asphaltene coverage of exteriors both increased with overall deposition tendency for the brine composition. The observed dependence on NaCl concentration and pH was consistent with expectations from DLVO and non-DLVO interactions governing brine thin film rupture and subsequent asphaltene deposition.