Wettability alteration and reducing water blockage in tight gas sandstone reservoirs using mixed cationic Gemini/nonionic fluorosurfactant mixtures

Abstract

AbstractThe unrecovered hydraulic fracturing fluid will invade the matrix and induce water blockage, creating formation damage and hindering the oil or gas production rate. First, the synergistic effect of cationic Gemini surfactant (MQAS) and nonionic fluorosurfactant (N‐2821) mixtures on reducing the surface tension and wettability alteration was investigated in this paper. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant mixture is one or two orders of magnitude lower than that of N‐2821 and MQAS, indicating that the MQAS/N‐2821 mixtures exhibit an apparent synergistic effect in reducing surface tension. Moreover, the maximal contact angle of MQAS/N‐2821 mixtures reached 83.55° at αN‐2821 = 0.5, and the total surfactant concentration of 1 × 10−4 mol/L due to the adsorption of surfactant. The adsorption mechanism of surfactants on the surface of quartz sand was then examined. The adsorption kinetics is consistent with the pseudo‐second‐order model at different surfactant concentrations, while the Freundlich model is suitable for describing the adsorption behavior of surfactants on the sandstone surface. This finding indicates that surfactant adsorption is multilayered. The MQAS/N‐2821 surfactant mixtures have excellent surfactant activity due to the relationship of the capillary pressure to the surface tension, pore radius, and contact angle; thus, the addition of surfactant mixtures can reduce the liquid saturation effectively. Furthermore, the sequential imbibition experiments indicate that MQAS/N‐2821 mixtures alter the wettability of the core plug, which results from the adsorption of surfactants. Compared with brine water, the MQAS/N‐2821 mixtures decreased the liquid saturation and increased the permeability recovery ratios of the core plug.