Study on the slip behavior of CO2-crude oil on nanopore surfaces with different wettability

Abstract

Unconventional reservoirs are characterized by a significant amount of micro and nanopores, which pose a critical challenge in accurately assessing the microscopic fluid transport behaviors to enhance oil and gas recovery in such reservoirs. CO2 injection is a promising recovery method for unconventional resources, hence the transport mechanism of CO2-crude oil at the nanoscale deserves further exploration. In this work, the flow and transport behaviors of CO2 and multicomponent crude oil in hydrophilic, neutral, and hydrophobic nanopores were investigated by the molecular dynamics simulation (MD) method. The CO2-crude oil shows a negative slip flow on hydrophilic surfaces, while it has a slip flow on neutral and hydrophobic surfaces. By illustrating the distribution structure of each component in the fluid and the solid-liquid interaction energy, the inherent causes of the slip mechanism of different wettability surfaces were revealed. The transport capacity and permeability of CO2-crude oil in the pores with different wettability were investigated. Modifying the Hagen-Poiseuille equation based on slip characteristics can effectively improve the prediction ability of nanopore permeability. This study is helpful to understand the flow and slip behavior of CO2-crude oil in nanopores of unconventional reservoirs, which provides a theoretical basis for accurately predicting the migration of reservoir fluid in nanopores.