Título: | PORE-SCALE MECHANISMS OF OIL DISPLACEMENT BY EMULSION INJECTION | ||||||||||||
Autor: |
CLARICE DE AMORIM |
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Colaborador(es): |
MARCIO DA SILVEIRA CARVALHO - Orientador RANENA VERONICA PONCE FLORES - Coorientador |
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Catalogação: | 21/NOV/2024 | Língua(s): | ENGLISH - UNITED STATES |
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Tipo: | TEXT | Subtipo: | THESIS | ||||||||||
Notas: |
[pt] Todos os dados constantes dos documentos são de inteira responsabilidade de seus autores. Os dados utilizados nas descrições dos documentos estão em conformidade com os sistemas da administração da PUC-Rio. [en] All data contained in the documents are the sole responsibility of the authors. The data used in the descriptions of the documents are in conformity with the systems of the administration of PUC-Rio. |
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Referência(s): |
[pt] https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/projetosEspeciais/ETDs/consultas/conteudo.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=68648&idi=1 [en] https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/projetosEspeciais/ETDs/consultas/conteudo.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=68648&idi=2 |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.17771/PUCRio.acad.68648 | ||||||||||||
Resumo: | |||||||||||||
Water injection is the most commonly used method for extending the productive life of oil reservoirs; however, its efficiency is limited by an unfavorable
mobility ratio between the injected aqueous phase and the displaced oil phase.
Reservoir heterogeneity exacerbates this issue, driving water through preferential flow paths with lower capillary resistance, leaving trapped oil behind.
Recent studies propose oil-in-water emulsions as a pore-blocking agent to reduce aqueous phase mobility, leading to a more uniform displacement front
and enhancing oil recovery. Despite recent developments in emulsion injection for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), fundamental aspects of the pore-scale
dynamics of oil-in-water emulsion flow and its correlation with observed macroscopic mobility reduction remain not completely understood. This study
explores key factors influencing the design of an effective emulsion injection
process, including emulsion drop size, pore throat distribution, and injection
flow rate, and their impact on the mobility reduction of the aqueous phase.
Two-dimensional porous media micromodels were employed to visualize drop
dynamics, examining how pore-scale phenomena affect aqueous phase mobility
reduction. Two distinct geometries were designed for this purpose. The linear
micromodel ensures a constant pressure gradient and flow velocity along its
length, while the radial configuration assesses emulsion flooding performance
under varying capillary numbers. In the latter configuration, the flow area increases with the radius, reducing the flow velocity as the fluid moves away
from the injection point. Results show that mobility reduction can be finely
controlled by the capillary number and the drop size distribution. At sufficiently high capillary numbers, the pressure difference in most pores is strong
enough to overcome the capillary pressure needed to push a drop through the
constriction; the number of trapped drops is relatively small, and mobility reduction is weak. Conversely, at low capillary numbers, the number of trapped
drops is large; the mobility reduction is strong and dependent on the drop size
distribution. Additionally, in radial flow, stronger pore-blocking occurs below
a critical capillary number, where capillary resistance surpasses viscous pressure. Flow visualization demonstrates that emulsion flooding improves pore-level displacement efficiency, reducing residual oil saturation. These findings
offer valuable insights into tailoring oil-in-water emulsions for injection into
reservoirs with known pore throat distributions, aiming to achieve the necessary aqueous phase mobility reduction and consequently increase oil recovery
factors.
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