Laboratory Study on the Potential EOR Use of HPAM/VES Hybrid in High-Temperature and High-Salinity Oil Reservoirs
Polymer flooding represents one of the most efficient processes to enhance oil recovery, and partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) is a widely used oil-displacement agent, but its poor thermal stability, salt tolerance, and mechanical degradation impeded its use in high-temperature and high-sal...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Hindawi Limited
2013-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Chemistry |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/927519 |
| Summary: | Polymer flooding represents one of the most efficient processes to enhance oil recovery, and partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) is a widely used oil-displacement agent, but its poor thermal stability, salt tolerance, and mechanical degradation impeded its use in high-temperature and high-salinity oil reservoirs. In this work, a novel viscoelastic surfactant, erucyl dimethyl amidobetaine (EDAB), with improved thermal stability and salinity tolerance, was complexed with HPAM to overcome the deficiencies of HPAM. The HPAM/EDAB hybrid samples were studied in comparison with HPAM and EDAB in synthetic brine regarding their rheological behaviors and core flooding experiments under simulated high-temperature and high-salinity oil reservoir conditions (T: 85°C; total dissolved solids: 32,868 mg/L; [Ca2+] + [Mg2+]: 873 mg/L). It was found that the HPAM/EDAB hybrids exhibited much better heat- and salinity-tolerance and long-term thermal stability than HPAM. Core flooding tests showed that the oil recovery factors of HPAM/EDAB hybrids are between those of HPAM and EDAB. These results are attributed to the synergistic effect between HPAM and EDAB in the hybrid. |
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| ISSN: | 2090-9063 2090-9071 |