Mysteries Behind Mechanisms of Combining Nanoclay Particles with Polymer Solution for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Perhaps the simplest chemical flooding method is polymer flooding. In this process water soluble polymers are injected into the reservoir to increase the efficiency of the water flood process by decreasing the mobility of water. The incremental oil produced in this case is the result of increase in areal and vertical sweep efficiencies. Biopolymers (xanthan) and synthetic polymers (polyacrylamide) are the major categories used in the petroleum industry for specific reasons. Biopolymers like xanthan are limited in their application as they are more susceptible to biodegradation and can only be used below a high temperature. Synthetic polymers like Hydrolyzed PolyAcrylaMide (HPAM) have a much wider application, as they are less susceptible to biodegradation and can be used in higher temperatures. The objective of this study is to investigatethe effect of combining nanoclay particles with polymer solution on oil recovery. This paper includes a history matched description of xanthan coreflood using the UTCHEM simulator. Results indicated that the amount of polymer adsorption decreased when nanoclays were added tothe PAM solution rather than HPAM solution ;however, mobility ratio improvement is believed to be the main contributor for the purposed method in order to enhance much oil recovery rather than xanthan flood and HPAM flood.

کلیدواژه ها:

Polymer Flooding ، Nanoclay ، Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) ، UTCHEM