Viscous Oil Recovery with Aluminium Oxide Nanoparticles Using the 2D model: An Experimental Approach

Abstract

Capillary forces, inappropriate mobility ratio & reservoir heterogeneity
account for trapped oil in reservoirs after the secondary process. To
optimise the recovery of this left behind Oil, improved oil recovery
(IOR) techniques need to be applied, which can be economically
demanding. The use of the particles of the Oxide of Aluminium precisely
Aluminium Oxide Nanoparticle (Al2O3 NP) technology for IOR is a
recent innovation that is in short supply in literature as Al2O3 NP help
oil mobilization by reducing the interfacial tension between oil & water.
Laboratory experiments were carried out using a Hele-shaw cell, and a
2-D glass cell with glass beads as the porous media to investigate the
flow and viscous oil recovery by Nanoparticles injection. The
experimental work was in six folds with six slugs labelled A, B, C, D, E
and F respectively. Results obtained indicated that flooding with the
nanoparticles in a water-ethanol mixture (that is Slugs A and D)
produced high recovery compared to that of Nanoparticles (NP) in brine
(that is Slugs B and E only) and NP in ethanol (that is Slugs C and F
only) because aluminium oxide is a hydrophilic nanoparticle and would
merge with water and allow the ethanol to reduce the interfacial tension,
compared to using brine. Therefore, the dispersing fluid plays a vital role
in oil recovery by NP slugs.