Abstract
Synthetic polymers for Enhanced Oil Recovery; Mechanical degradation, and alleviation thereof; Experimental study across scales in pipes, chokes, and porous media of regular HPAM, HPAM-ATBS co-polymers, and TAPs
Highlights
Mobility reduction is strongly linked to a viscosity increase which is usually negatively affected by salinity
To briefly sum-up the key-points to take from this work: It was confirmed that Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide viscosity is drastically reduced with increasing salinity, and that this effect is reduced if ATBS is incorporated into the polymer
It was found that mechanical degradation of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) is worsened with increasing salinity, whereas if ATBS is present in the polymer molecule, degradation is almost the same in sea-water-type solutions as in low salinity NaCl-solutions
Summary
This thesis and the related work concern synthetic polymers for enhanced oil recovery, their ability to reduce the mobility of the water phase during oil recovery, and their predisposition to mechanically break when subjected to certain flow conditions. It was found that at velocities above the critical velocity for onset of degradation, degradation continues for at least 20 iv meters, and following the initial inlet degradation, the viscosity declines with Lx , where x = −0.1 for high molecular weight HPAM in synthetic seawater This degradation is associated with unrealistically large pressure gradients which will not occur in the main part of the reservoir. Homogenous and stable thermo-thickening was achieved in a 76 cm long sandpack, but the build-up of resistance to flow was slow, and for the weaker systems tested (lower associative content or salinity), resistance to flow collapsed at very low velocities These systems still show great promise v regarding EOR, but a better understanding of the mechanisms guiding their behaviour is needed for optimum design for specific field conditions
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