Abstract
Gum arabic (GA) capacity as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agent is studied and compared to the commonly applied xanthan gum (XG). FTIR and TGA characterisation of these two polyelectrolytes and a rheology study by viscosity measurement was conducted on their polymeric and nano-polymeric solution at varying concentrations of the polymers and nanoparticles (NP). Coreflooding experiments were conducted based on a sequence of waterflooding and three slugs of increasing concentration of polymeric (and nano-polymeric) solutions to evaluate EOR performance. Results show similar rheology and oil recovery for 1.0 wt% GA and a 0.1 wt% XG polymeric solution. And the viscosity of GA tends to be Newtonian at a relatively high shear rate. The magnitude of incremental oil recovery of the first slug is independent of the GA concentration but significant for XG. However, the impact of nano-polymeric solution on oil recovery is higher than the polymeric solution. The increase in NP concentration played a vital role in oil recovery, thereby connoting the significance of IFT, contact angle, and its associated mechanisms for EOR. And FTIR affirms that the hydroxyl group in XG is less than GA, thus responsible for adsorption of GA compared to XG.
Highlights
About one-third of the crude oil found in known reservoirs is economically recoverable based on the primary recovery methods through gas expansion and other natural forces in the reservoir and waterflooding through secondary recovery (Austad et al 2010)
This study has extensively investigated the rheology of Gum arabic (GA) and its NP-polymeric solution compared to the commonly applied xanthan gum (XG) biopolymer and XG NP-polymeric solution at a broad range of individual constituents’ concentration
This low viscosity of the gum arabic is attributed to the low molecular weight compared to other commonly used polymers and polyelectrolytes in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) such as xanthan gum
Summary
About one-third of the crude oil found in known reservoirs is economically recoverable based on the primary recovery methods through gas expansion and other natural forces in the reservoir and waterflooding through secondary recovery (Austad et al 2010). The much needed tertiary recovery popularly referred to as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). EOR is a process that involves the injection of substances (which is not initially present in the reservoir) into a petroleum reservoir to achieve additional recovery beyond what is obtainable from the primary and secondary methods of oil recovery (Nowrouzi et al 2019; Saha et al 2018). A standard EOR method is chemical flooding. Various forms of chemical EOR have been employed (e.g. alkaline, surfactant, polymer and their combinations) at the reservoir conditions of high salinity and high temperature. The need for further investigation and development of novel chemicals
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