Abstract
The traditional Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes allow improving the performance of mature oilfields after waterflooding projects. Chemical EOR processes modify different physical properties of the fluids and/or the rock in order to mobilize the oil that remains trapped. Furthermore, combined processes have been proposed to improve the performance, using the properties and synergy of the chemical agents. This paper presents a novel simulator developed for a combined surfactant/polymer flooding in EOR processes. It studies the flow of a two-phase, five-component system (aqueous and organic phases with water, petroleum, surfactant, polymer and salt) in porous media. Polymer and surfactant together affect each other’s interfacial and rheological properties as well as the adsorption rates. This is known in the industry as Surfactant-Polymer Interaction (SPI). The simulations showed that optimum results occur when both chemical agents are injected overlapped, with the polymer in the first place. This procedure decreases the surfactant’s adsorption rates, rendering higher recovery factors. The presence of the salt as fifth component slightly modifies the adsorption rates of both polymer and surfactant, but its influence on the phase behavior allows increasing the surfactant’s sweep efficiency.
Highlights
Since the last half-century the world economy has been facing a problem regarding its energy demands
The possibilities are reduced to either find new fossil energy resources, or extending the lifetime and/or performance of the already mature oilfields, which are close to their economic limit of exploitation
The objective of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes is to increase the latter by means of the developing of novel chemical species aimed at modifying the physical properties of the formation and/or the fluids trapped in it [1,2,3]
Summary
Since the last half-century the world economy has been facing a problem regarding its energy demands. The trend has been to develop new sources, sustainable and “greener”, in order to replace fossil hydrocarbons. The current technologies make it impossible for these to replace the oil, gas, wood and/or coal derivate sources. The possibilities are reduced to either find new fossil energy resources, or extending the lifetime and/or performance of the already mature oilfields, which are close to their economic limit of exploitation. The objective of EOR processes is to increase the latter by means of the developing of novel chemical species aimed at modifying the physical properties of the formation and/or the fluids trapped in it [1,2,3].
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