Aqueous Hybrids of Silica Nanoparticles and Hydrophobically Associating Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide Used for EOR in High-Temperature and High-Salinity Reservoirs

Energies

Dingwei Zhu¹  Limin Wei¹  Biqing Wang¹ 

[1] Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China; E-Mails:

关键词: silica nanoparticles;    hydrophobically associating polyacrylamide;    rheological properties;    enhanced oil recovery;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en7063858

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Water-soluble polymers are known to be used in chemically enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes, but their applications are limited in high-temperature and high-salinity oil reservoirs because of their inherent poor salt tolerance and weak thermal stability. Hydrophobic association of partially hydrolyzed polyacryamide (HAHPAM) complexed with silica nanoparticles to prepare nano-hybrids is reported in this work. The rheological and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) properties of such hybrids were studied in comparison with HAHPAM under simulated high-temperature and high-salinity oil reservoir conditions (T: 85 °C; total dissolved solids: 32,868 mg∙L⁻¹; [Ca²⁺] + [Mg²⁺]: 873 mg∙L⁻¹). It was found that the apparent viscosity and elastic modulus of HAHPAM solutions increased with addition of silica nanoparticles, and HAHPAM/silica hybrids exhibit better shear resistance and long-term thermal stability than HAHPAM in synthetic brine. Moreover, core flooding tests show that HAHPAM/silica hybrid has a higher oil recovery factor than HAHPAM solution.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.