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Thermoviscosifying polymer used for enhanced oil recovery: rheological behaviors and core flooding test

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Abstract

Polymer flooding represents one of the most efficient processes to enhance oil recovery, but the poor thermostability and salt tolerance of the currently used water-soluble polymers impeded their use in high temperature and salinity oil reservoirs. Thermoviscosifying polymers (TVPs) whose viscosity increases upon increasing temperature and salinity may overcome the deficiencies of most water-soluble polymers. A novel TVP was studied in comparison with traditional partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) in synthetic brine regarding their rheological behaviors and core flooding experiments under simulated high temperature and salinity oil reservoir conditions (T: 85 °C, and total salinity: 32,868 mg/L, [Ca2+] + [Mg2+]: 873 mg/L). It was found that with increasing temperature, both apparent viscosity and elastic modulus of the TVP polymer solution increase, while those of the HPAM solutions decrease. Such a difference is attributed to their microstructures formed in aqueous solution, which were observed by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. Core flow tests at equal conditions showed an oil recovery factor of 13.5 % for the TVP solution versus only 2.1 % for the HPAM solution.

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Acknowledgments

Y. Feng thanks the financial support from Shandong provincial government through its “Taishan Scholar” Project, and Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province through its Distinguished Youth Fund (2010JQ0029) and Application-Oriented Fundamental Research Program (2008JY0002). Y. Wang acknowledges the sponsorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences through its “the Light in the West” training program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Quansheng Chen, Yu Wang, Zhiyong Lu & Yujun Feng

  2. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Quansheng Chen

  3. EOR Laboratory, Research Institute of Geological Sciences, Karamay Oilfield Company of PetroChina, Karamay, 834000, People’s Republic of China

    Quansheng Chen

  4. EOR Laboratory, Geological Scientific Research Institute, Shengli Oilfield Company of Sinopec, Dongying, 257013, People’s Republic of China

    Yujun Feng

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  1. Quansheng Chen
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  2. Yu Wang
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  3. Zhiyong Lu
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  4. Yujun Feng
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Correspondence to Yu Wang or Yujun Feng.

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Chen, Q., Wang, Y., Lu, Z. et al. Thermoviscosifying polymer used for enhanced oil recovery: rheological behaviors and core flooding test. Polym. Bull. 70, 391–401 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-012-0798-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-012-0798-7

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