Abstract
Water injection is a widespread technique used in the oil production sector to enhance the oil recovery and expand the production life of a well. Using nanoparticles to further enhance the recovery by reducing interfacial tension (IFT) and altering wettability is a new trend adopted in the water injection application due to the low risk of formation damage, also for their cost-effectiveness. However, water salinity and suspended particles are significant challenges as they affect the behaviour of nanoparticles in the water saline media. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of two types of nanofluids with nano-SiO2 and Al2O3 on reducing IFT for water injection application. In this work, a 1:1 mix of seawater and effluent water is, respectively, examined based on an interfacial step change. The technique of mixing seawater with effluent water is being used to reduce the salinity of the effluent water for the selected reservoir. The mixed water was prepared under elevated temperature and 1000 Psi to resemble downhole conditions and then evaluated by inductively coupled plasma and energy-dispersive spectroscopy, where for thermal stability prediction of the water mix the OLI Studio was used. Then selected nanoparticles were then added at different concentrations to the mixed water to form the required nanofluid. IFT was measured as a function of nanoparticle concentration by a Drop Shape Analyzer—DSA100 apparatus using an optical pendant drop method to evaluate the effect of the nanoparticles within the prepared mix in terms of interfacial tension between crude oil and the prepared water, as IFT is an essential variable for oil recovery. The study revealed that 0.025 and 0.05 wt% of SiO2 concentration had reduced the IFT of the crude effectively for the selected seawater mix ratio. In addition, when R2 values for the collected data were compared, Al2O3 concentration of 0.025% showed more cost-effectiveness over other concentrations. The study concludes that the prepared water mix is compatible with nanoparticles and causes the desired reduction in IFT at a low concentration which can be considered as an advantage in terms of cost-effectiveness and rock pore plugging.
Published Version
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