Polymer flow through water- and oil-wet porous media

Abstract

The effect of wettability on polymer behavior in porous media is investigated through a series of synthetic polymer floods conducted in water- and oil-wet Bentheim and Berea sandstone cores. A new experimental setup is used in which the core effluent polymer concentrations are not measured during polymer flooding, but instead are passed through a capillary tube that is connected to the core outlet. Using the notion of intrinsic viscosity, an approximate expression is presented that can be used to determine the breakthrough time of the injected polymer solution. In addition, polymer adsorption, inaccessible pore volume, and apparent viscosities are evaluated for all cores and wetting conditions. In general, in the presence of residual oil, the oil-wet cores display the lowest degree of polymer retention (Berea) and the lowest inaccessible pore volume-IPV (Bentheim). The largest wettability impact on the polymer behavior in porous media appears to be for the Berea formation; polymer retention in oil-wet cores decreases 90% and IPV 52% compared to the corresponding amounts for the water-wet ones. On the other hand, the estimated polymer retention and IPV values appear to be similar for the oil- and water-wet Bentheim cores, this is attributed to questionable wettability alteration.