Abstract
Functional polymer flooding has been proven to be capable to improve oil recovery by mobility control and emulsification. However, the contribution degree of emulsification function of polymer flooding to oil recovery has not been clarified. This work experimentally investigated the ability of two functional polymers (RH-4 and KLP-6) with emulsification property and common polymer (HPAM) to enhance oil recovery. The steady shear viscosity, viscoelasticity and emulsification property of polymers were measured by rheometer and bottle tests, respectively. The core displacement experiments and etched glass micro-model were conducted to measure the oil recovery and the mechanism. The results showed that under the same viscosity of the three polymers, RH-4 and KLP-6 with emulsification property exhibited higher improvement of oil recovery over the emulsification-free HPAM polymer due to their higher washing efficiency. And in heterogeneous formation, the KLP-6 polymer obtained the highest recovery which can be attributed to the higher sweep volume by Jamin effect of the emulsified oil droplets. This work establishes a theoretical foundation for the application of functional polymers in oil fields.
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