Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs

CO 2 -assisted enhanced oil recovery appears to be a cost-effective and an environmentally friendly means to unlock remaining oil resources from sandstone reservoirs. While wettability alteration due to water uptake of CO 2 has been identified as one of the primary mechanisms to govern subsurface mu...

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Main Authors: Chen, Y., Sari, A., Xie, Q., Saeedi, Ali
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Chemical Society 2019
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73626
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author Chen, Y.
Sari, A.
Xie, Q.
Saeedi, Ali
author_facet Chen, Y.
Sari, A.
Xie, Q.
Saeedi, Ali
author_sort Chen, Y.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description CO 2 -assisted enhanced oil recovery appears to be a cost-effective and an environmentally friendly means to unlock remaining oil resources from sandstone reservoirs. While wettability alteration due to water uptake of CO 2 has been identified as one of the primary mechanisms to govern subsurface multiphase flow and thus residual oil saturations, few works have been done to explore the leading factor of wettability alteration and fewer works have looked beyond the quantitative characterization of this physical process. We hypothesized that water uptake of CO 2 provides excess H + which decreases electrostatic bridges of an oil-brine-sandstone system, thus increasing hydrophilicity. To test our hypothesis, we conducted three sets of contact angle measurements in non-carbonated and carbonated brines using muscovite substrates at the pressure of 3000 psi and temperature of 25 °C. Moreover, we performed a geochemical study to quantify how excess H + governs electrostatic bridges in the oil-brine-muscovite system bearing basal charged clays. Our contact angle measurements show that non-carbonated water gave a contact angle of 118°, whereas carbonated brine gave a contact angle of 30°, implying a strong hydrophilic system. Geochemical modeling demonstrates that excess H + substantially substitutes exchangeable cations (>Na) embedded in muscovite, thus decreasing electrostatic bridges between oil-brine-muscovite. This work provides a first quantitative investigation on how water uptake of CO 2 depresses the ion-exchange process between oil-brine-muscovite, thus leading to wettability alteration.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2019
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-736262019-03-25T05:04:04Z Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs Chen, Y. Sari, A. Xie, Q. Saeedi, Ali CO 2 -assisted enhanced oil recovery appears to be a cost-effective and an environmentally friendly means to unlock remaining oil resources from sandstone reservoirs. While wettability alteration due to water uptake of CO 2 has been identified as one of the primary mechanisms to govern subsurface multiphase flow and thus residual oil saturations, few works have been done to explore the leading factor of wettability alteration and fewer works have looked beyond the quantitative characterization of this physical process. We hypothesized that water uptake of CO 2 provides excess H + which decreases electrostatic bridges of an oil-brine-sandstone system, thus increasing hydrophilicity. To test our hypothesis, we conducted three sets of contact angle measurements in non-carbonated and carbonated brines using muscovite substrates at the pressure of 3000 psi and temperature of 25 °C. Moreover, we performed a geochemical study to quantify how excess H + governs electrostatic bridges in the oil-brine-muscovite system bearing basal charged clays. Our contact angle measurements show that non-carbonated water gave a contact angle of 118°, whereas carbonated brine gave a contact angle of 30°, implying a strong hydrophilic system. Geochemical modeling demonstrates that excess H + substantially substitutes exchangeable cations (>Na) embedded in muscovite, thus decreasing electrostatic bridges between oil-brine-muscovite. This work provides a first quantitative investigation on how water uptake of CO 2 depresses the ion-exchange process between oil-brine-muscovite, thus leading to wettability alteration. 2019 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73626 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b03573 American Chemical Society restricted
spellingShingle Chen, Y.
Sari, A.
Xie, Q.
Saeedi, Ali
Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs
title Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs
title_full Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs
title_fullStr Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs
title_full_unstemmed Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs
title_short Excess H+ Increases Hydrophilicity during CO2‑Assisted Enhanced Oil Recovery in Sandstone Reservoirs
title_sort excess h+ increases hydrophilicity during co2‑assisted enhanced oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73626