Abstract
The displacement efficiency of welan gum on enhanced heavy oil recovery has been investigated by comparing that of xanthan gum which is commonly used for polymer flooding, and it is found that the displacement efficiency of biopolymer welan gum is higher (>7.0 % at the normal permeability) than that of xanthan gum. In-depth rheological investigations show that both storage modulus and loss modulus of welan gum solution are higher than those of xanthan gum solutions at the same concentration, temperature and salinity. The higher displacement efficiency for enhanced heavy oil recovery by welan gum is mainly caused by its stronger ability to form aggregates. Although the molecular weight of welan gum is lower than that of xanthan gum, the aggregates of welan gum molecules help to improve the sweep efficiency. It is proposed that welan gum improves oil recovery by drawing and dragging on the residual oils which is derived from the interlinked network structures formed by the adjacent double helices in the arrangement of the zipper model. The intermolecular structures formed by zipper model are stable in high temperature and high salinity condition. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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