Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors

Smart water flooding (SWF) has been successfully implanted in many fields around the world for the past decades. In this approach, smart water is injected into the reservoir to change the surface characteristics of rocks and improve the oil recovery. However, the presence of sulfate ions in the sma...

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Main Authors: Safari, Mehdi, Rahimi, Ali, Lah, Rainnie Mering, Gholami, Raoof, Khur, Wee Siaw
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: ELSEVIER 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80085
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author Safari, Mehdi
Rahimi, Ali
Lah, Rainnie Mering
Gholami, Raoof
Khur, Wee Siaw
author_facet Safari, Mehdi
Rahimi, Ali
Lah, Rainnie Mering
Gholami, Raoof
Khur, Wee Siaw
author_sort Safari, Mehdi
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Smart water flooding (SWF) has been successfully implanted in many fields around the world for the past decades. In this approach, smart water is injected into the reservoir to change the surface characteristics of rocks and improve the oil recovery. However, the presence of sulfate ions in the smart water and their interactions with the cations dissolved in the formation water (FW) may generate what is called scale. There have been several approaches proposed so far to inhibit the scale formations under different conditions but limited success has been reported to the application of these methods once tested under the reservoir conditions. In this paper, a nanomaterial based approach is proposed to inhibit the scale formation during SWF. Nano Glass Flakes (NGFs) and nano silica were considered as two effective nanomaterials in this study and a series of measurements were made to ensure that the scale formation can be inhibited under different temperature and salinity conditions. The results obtained indicates that if the nanoparticles can be properly dispersed in the smart water solution, the likelihood of the scale formation can be significantly decreased and the conductivity can be increased to 0.69 and 0.65 mS/cm for NGFs and nano silica solutions at 50 °C. It appears that NGFs provide a far better performance as temperature rises while nano silica loses its performance. It is also found that the nanoparticles perform better in a high saline water and can be an effective choice for SWF in the concentration of 0.05 wt%. It is also noted that the conductivity improvement made by NGFs in a high salinity water is 0.9 mS/cm while that for water with a low salinity conductivity is 0.23 mS/cm. Given the fact that the nanoparticles used has huge negative surface charge, reduction of the scale formation might be linked to the cations adsorption in the solution but may need further studies.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-800852020-08-13T01:23:53Z Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors Safari, Mehdi Rahimi, Ali Lah, Rainnie Mering Gholami, Raoof Khur, Wee Siaw Science & Technology Physical Sciences Chemistry, Physical Physics, Atomic, Molecular & Chemical Chemistry Physics Calcium sulfate Inhibitor Smart water Precipitation, nanomaterials ENHANCED OIL-RECOVERY WETTABILITY ALTERATION CALCIUM-CARBONATE INJECTION NANOSILICA IMPROVE CRYSTALLIZATION PRECIPITATION TECHNOLOGIES TEMPERATURE Smart water flooding (SWF) has been successfully implanted in many fields around the world for the past decades. In this approach, smart water is injected into the reservoir to change the surface characteristics of rocks and improve the oil recovery. However, the presence of sulfate ions in the smart water and their interactions with the cations dissolved in the formation water (FW) may generate what is called scale. There have been several approaches proposed so far to inhibit the scale formations under different conditions but limited success has been reported to the application of these methods once tested under the reservoir conditions. In this paper, a nanomaterial based approach is proposed to inhibit the scale formation during SWF. Nano Glass Flakes (NGFs) and nano silica were considered as two effective nanomaterials in this study and a series of measurements were made to ensure that the scale formation can be inhibited under different temperature and salinity conditions. The results obtained indicates that if the nanoparticles can be properly dispersed in the smart water solution, the likelihood of the scale formation can be significantly decreased and the conductivity can be increased to 0.69 and 0.65 mS/cm for NGFs and nano silica solutions at 50 °C. It appears that NGFs provide a far better performance as temperature rises while nano silica loses its performance. It is also found that the nanoparticles perform better in a high saline water and can be an effective choice for SWF in the concentration of 0.05 wt%. It is also noted that the conductivity improvement made by NGFs in a high salinity water is 0.9 mS/cm while that for water with a low salinity conductivity is 0.23 mS/cm. Given the fact that the nanoparticles used has huge negative surface charge, reduction of the scale formation might be linked to the cations adsorption in the solution but may need further studies. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80085 10.1016/j.molliq.2020.113250 English ELSEVIER restricted
spellingShingle Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Chemistry, Physical
Physics, Atomic, Molecular & Chemical
Chemistry
Physics
Calcium sulfate
Inhibitor
Smart water
Precipitation, nanomaterials
ENHANCED OIL-RECOVERY
WETTABILITY ALTERATION
CALCIUM-CARBONATE
INJECTION
NANOSILICA
IMPROVE
CRYSTALLIZATION
PRECIPITATION
TECHNOLOGIES
TEMPERATURE
Safari, Mehdi
Rahimi, Ali
Lah, Rainnie Mering
Gholami, Raoof
Khur, Wee Siaw
Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors
title Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors
title_full Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors
title_fullStr Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors
title_full_unstemmed Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors
title_short Sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors
title_sort sustaining sulfate ions throughout smart water flooding by nanoparticle based scale inhibitors
topic Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Chemistry, Physical
Physics, Atomic, Molecular & Chemical
Chemistry
Physics
Calcium sulfate
Inhibitor
Smart water
Precipitation, nanomaterials
ENHANCED OIL-RECOVERY
WETTABILITY ALTERATION
CALCIUM-CARBONATE
INJECTION
NANOSILICA
IMPROVE
CRYSTALLIZATION
PRECIPITATION
TECHNOLOGIES
TEMPERATURE
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80085