Hu, Z, Nourafkan, E, Gao, H et al. (1 more author) (2017) Microemulsions stabilized by in-situ synthesized nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery. Fuel, 210. pp. 272-281. ISSN 0016-2361
Abstract
Nanoparticles (NPs) have been recently proposed to stabilize microemulsions (MEs) to improve their stability under harsh conditions, i.e., high temperature and high salinity as in hydrocarbon reservoirs. This work developed a novel method to produce iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) in-situ in oil-in-water (o/w) MEs, and examined their performance in improving oil recovery. IONPs were in-situ synthesized in MEs containing brine, n-hexane, mixture of SDS and Span 80 as the surfactants, and propyl alcohol as the co-solvent. The enhanced oil recovery (EOR) potentials of MEs and MEs containing different concentrations of IONPs (MEIN) were investigated in a core flooding system. The results indicated that the use of MEIN can significantly increase the oil recovery efficiency, i.e., jumping from 10% for ME without being stabilized NPs to 28.9% at a NPs concentration of 6400 ppm. Moreover, MEIN achieved much lower and more stable pressure profile (i.e. nearly one order of magnitude smaller) during the flooding and post-flooding stage, showing its excellent injection applicability. Four potential EOR mechanisms were examined and the formation of stable MEs synergistically stabilized by NPs and surfactants was considered as the main reason, supplemented by less formation of viscous phase, more stable IFT and increased viscosity for better mobility control.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2017, Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Fuel. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union 648375 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Sep 2017 11:57 |
Last Modified: | 31 Aug 2018 00:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.fuel.2017.08.004 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:120776 |