Elsevier

Fuel

Volume 241, 1 April 2019, Pages 1045-1057
Fuel

Review article
A comprehensive review on interaction of nanoparticles with low salinity water and surfactant for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2018.12.122Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The ability of nanoparticles (NPs) in ionic solutions to reduce fines migration is studied.

  • The variation of wettability alteration by different concentrations of NPs is reviewed.

  • The variation in interfacial tension of solutions of surfactant and NPs is addressed.

  • The salinity of injected fluid affects the contact angle, which results in variation of oil recovery.

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) are currently gaining wide acceptance in the field of petroleum engineering. They are applied in different areas of petroleum exploration and production such as drilling, well logging, reservoir management, and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Due to the size of NPs, they have special physical and chemical properties. Therefore, NPs can influence the properties of the fluid system, including viscosity, magnetism, and interfacial tension (IFT).

The injection of NPs into the reservoirs for EOR is more effective than water injection but not as effective as chemical flooding. Consequently, NPs are injected along with low salinity water (LSW) or chemicals such as surfactant in order to improve the recovery of oil. NPs are used to prevent the fines migration during LSW injection, control the mobility of formation water, and reduce the surfactant adsorption on the pore walls of the reservoir.

The improvement in oil recovery, when NPs are injected in combination with LSW or chemicals in the reservoir, can be attributed to the variations in the properties of the fluid system and the rock-fluid interactions. This study comprehensively reviews the mechanisms behind these variations. LSW injection improves the oil recovery by altering the rock wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. However, this study reveals that the dispersion of NPs in LSW does not necessarily change the rock wettability towards water-wet. The wettability of the system may shift towards oil-wet instead of water-wet depending on the concentration of NPs. Improvement in oil recovery depends on the effective surface charge and the volume fraction of dispersed NPs in the solution. Aggregation of NPs in solution should be avoided because it lowers the recovery by plugging the pore throats. The stability of NPs dispersed in solution with increasing concentrations of salt and surfactant is reviewed and the resulting effect on the IFT of the solution is analyzed. NPs dispersed in different types of surfactant show different behaviors of IFT. The behavior of the IFT depends on the concentration of surfactant, the amount of dispersed NPs (concentration), the type of surfactant (anionic, cationic, and non-ionic), and the effective charge of NPs (positive, negative, and neutral). The combination of LSW with surfactant for oil recovery has two opposing impacts. The IFT reduces while the contact angle increases with an increase in salinity.

The mechanisms responsible for the variations in the properties of the system when the combination of LSW, surfactant, and NPs are used for oil recovery are reviewed in this study. Understanding the mechanisms behind the interactions at the fluid-fluid and the fluid-solid interfaces will aid in designing an effective fluid system that combines LSW, surfactant, and NPs for successful implementation of EOR in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs.

Introduction

Due to the size of Nanoparticles (NPs), they exhibit special physical and chemical properties [1]. The NPs size varies in the range of 1–100 nm, which enhances their application in numerous professional fields. They have gained wide acceptance in different fields of science and engineering like pharmacy, medicines, ceramics, and metallurgy. The application of NPs to hydrocarbon reservoir formations has increased because of their mechanical and thermal stability properties [2], [3].

The advancement in technology has made the manufacturing of NPs to be easy and cost-effective [4]. This increases the application of NPs to the oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) [5]. Several studies have shown that a dispersed solution of NPs is efficient to alter the wettability of the rocks towards water-wet [6], [7], [8], [9] and reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) [2], [10]. However, NPs become more popular in the petroleum field as a result of their capacity to prevent fines migration in the reservoir during low salinity water (LSW) injection [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18]. Currently, NPs are being combined with LSW or chemicals used in EOR such as surfactant and alkaline to alter the rheological properties of the fluid system like viscosity, control and reduce the surfactant adsorption on the pore walls of the reservoir and the fines migration, and enhance oil recovery.

During the past three decades, surfactant flooding has been implemented for tertiary recovery of oil in the depleted reservoirs. Surfactants reduce the IFT between brine and oil; thus, enhance recovery and lower the residual oil saturation [19], [20]. However, the surfactants are significantly absorbed by the porous media, which affects their capability to reduce the IFT [21]. Several studies have also revealed that there are optimum water salinity and optimum temperature for effective performance of surfactants. The optimum water salinity for effective performance of surfactants is lower than the reservoir brine salinity [22], [23], [24]. This impacts the effectiveness of surfactants for EOR at the field scale.

In order to improve the effectiveness of surfactants for tertiary oil recovery, various studies were conducted to show that the adsorption of surfactants on the walls of the pores is reduced by addition of NPs to surfactants [25], [26], [27], [28]. Zargartalebi et al. [10] observed that the adsorption of surfactants and the IFT between brine and oil can be drastically reduced with addition of NPs at a concentration below the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactants.

LSW injection into the reservoir formations has been a subject of discussion within the past two decades. The laboratory and the field implementations of the LSW injection into sandstone and carbonate reservoirs have been reported to be successful [29], [30], [31], [32], [33]. Also, different theories and hypotheses have been proposed as the drive mechanisms for tertiary recovery of oil during LSW injection. Some of the popular proposed hypotheses are the reduction of the IFT, the multi-ion exchange, the electrical double layer (EDL) effect, the salt-in effect, and the osmotic pressure [34], [35]. Fines migration has been argued to be vital in the recovery of oil especially in sandstone formations [32]. However, the results of some conducted experiments are in contradiction with the theory that fines migration contributes to more oil recovery during LSW injection [36], [37], [38], [39], [40]. Fines migration occurs due to a decrease in the brine salinity and an increase in the pH. Despite the arguments on the mechanisms used by LSW to improve oil recovery, there is still a consensus that LSW flooding alters the wettability of the rocks towards water-wet [38], [41], [42], [43].

NPs are currently being used in the treatment of fines migration during LSW injection [12], [15], [18], [44], [45]. However, the selection of the appropriate NPs to reduce fines migration in the reservoir is essential to the success of LSW injection. The desired NPs prevent the fines from damaging the formation by plugging the pore throats. Several approaches for the treatment of fines migration by NPs during LSW injection were proposed in order to assess the efficiency of the NPs [38], [41], [42], [43], [44].

Also, combination of LSW with surfactant injection has been applied to both carbonate [46], [47] and sandstone [48] formations. The injection of surfactant improves the oil recovery from the reservoirs by reducing the IFT between oil and water. The combination of LSW with surfactant injection improves oil recovery by altering the wettability of the rock and reducing the IFT of the fluid system [46], [47], [48].

Although the injection of NPs in combination with LSW or chemicals (such as surfactant) has been reported to be successful for oil recovery from different reservoir formations, there is no consensus on the most suitable NPs for a particular reservoir and the best scenario to apply NPs injection. Fig. 1 explains the different combinations of LSW, surfactant, and NPs that enhance the oil recovery from different reservoir formations. The combination of two or three solutions of LSW, surfactant, and NPs improves the performance of the fluid system. However, the best combination and the most effective injection pattern for the combination of LSW, surfactant, and NPs for EOR are still vague. Understanding the mechanisms behind the interactions at the fluid-fluid and the fluid-solid interfaces is a guide for proper designing of an EOR method.

This work comprehensively reviews the mechanisms underlying the application of NPs in combination with LSW or chemicals like surfactant to the oil reservoirs. The review is divided into different parts in order to explain the mechanisms behind all the possible combinations of LSW, surfactant, and NPs used in the EOR techniques.

First, the stability of NPs in low and high salinity water is discussed to understand the behavior of the interaction between NPs and salt particles. Several techniques have been devised to determine the stability of NPs in solution. However, this work tries to relate the effects of the concentration of ions in solution and the concentration of NPs on the stability of NPs in solution. The significance of the zeta potential for determination of the NPs efficiency in reduction of fines migration is discussed. The variations in the contact angle and the oil recovery factor when a solution of NPs is injected into the reservoir is also reviewed using the results of the experiments reported by several studies in literature.

Then, the interaction forces that play critical roles in the recovery of oil when NPs is injected along with surfactant into the reservoir is discussed. Several results from existing experimental studies have shown that both the surface charge of selected NPs and the type of surfactant affect the IFT. The mechanisms responsible for the variation in the IFT are discussed.

Finally, the contributing mechanisms when LSW is injected along with surfactant to modify the wettability of the rock and reduce the oil-water IFT are reviewed. The basic screening criteria for the injection of NPs with LSW or surfactant into the reservoirs is thoroughly discussed and highlighted in this study.

This article is organized as follows. First, the interactions of NPs with deionized water and low and high salinity water are reviewed. Later, the interaction of NPs with surfactant is studied. Then, the interaction of LSW with surfactant is discussed. Finally, the summary and conclusions are presented.

Section snippets

NPs dispersed in deionized water and low and high salinity water

The Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) and the non-DLVO theories play important roles in the stability of NPs [49]. The DLVO theory states that the balance between the attractive forces (dispersion forces) and the electrostatic repulsive forces enhances the colloidal stability. An energy barrier created by the repulsive forces, which prevent the approaching of two particles to each other, results in a stable colloidal solution. Meanwhile, the attractive forces bring the particles together

NPs and surfactants

Surfactants are combined with NPs when an experiment is conducted in the laboratory for EOR [84]. However, the main objective of adding surfactants to NPs is to ensure the stability of NPs, which are unstable at a high concentration of salt solutions [87]. Recently, several studies have investigated the behavior of the adsorption of surfactant-NPs solutions in the porous media and the variation in IFT [76]. The mechanisms involved in the stability of NPs dispersed in a solution of high salinity

Low salinity water and surfactant

It has been shown that salinity is an important factor in the phase behavior of surfactant-oil-water micro-emulsion [35], [112], [113]. An optimum salinity of the solution is important for effective oil recovery. Teklu et al. [114] explained that several mechanisms account for the effective oil recovery during the injection of LSW in combination with the surfactant. Also, the minerals in the reservoir rock and the type of reservoir formation play important roles in the recovery mechanisms [115]

Summary and conclusions

The mechanisms involved during oil recovery from sandstone and carbonate reservoirs using combination of LSW, surfactant, and NPs are more complicated for EOR. Some of these mechanisms are the multi-ion exchange, the disjoining pressure, the electrophoresis, the adsorption, the diffusion, the fines migration, the osmotic pressure, and the EDL effects. Several factors which contribute to the mechanisms are listed as follows:

  • The effective charges of the dispersed solution of NPs,

  • The effective

Acknowledgment

The financial support from the Department of Petroleum Engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Wyoming is gratefully appreciated.

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