Titanium Oxide Nanofluids: EOR Applications

Titanium oxide nanofluids were used to improve recovery of heavy oil from sandstone cores. TEM image ofnanoparticles showed that the particles are elongated with average long and short axis sizes of 54 and 15 nm. Waterflooding tests showed that the recovery factor can be improved from 49% to 80% using TiO2 nanoparticles. Viscosityand interfacial tension measurements showed that by using TiO2 nanoparticles the viscosity of injected fluid andinterfacial tension do not change significantly and can not explain the change in recovery factor. Contact anglemeasurements showed that nanoparticles deposition changed the wettability of the rock surface from oil-wet to waterwet.SEM showed that nanoparticles were deposited uniformly in low concentration but accumulated in highconcentration. While in high concentration a lot of long nanorods were observed, smaller nanorods with the samediameter existed in low concentration. This indicated that production of nanorods start in initial stages of nanoparticlesdeposition.

کلیدواژه ها:

TiO2 ، Nanoparticles ، Enhanced Oil Recovery ، Wettability