Multiscale fluid dynamics in porous media: applications in enhanced oil recovery
Vladivostok Franz Suxo Mamani1; Caetano Rodrigues Miranda1
1 Universidade de São Paulo
doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2017-0357
Resumo
The understanding of the adsorption and wettability in rock-brine-oil interfaces is crucial to estimate the amount of crude oil that can be potentially extracted from natural reservoirs. One of the most promising applications of nanotechnology in Oil & Gas industry, it is the potential of nanostructures as wettability modifiers for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes. These nanostructures can be produced economically feasible in large scale with a certain degree of control and stable at reservoir conditions. In addition, their surface and interfacial properties can be tuned for a given geological reservoir. For EOR processes, it is also important to characterize the fluid flow and porous media (mineralogy and morphology) by considering the connectivity, porosity, tortuosity and permeability. In this work, we apply a hierarchical multi-scalar calculation protocol to explore the potential applications of the intelligent nanofluids for EOR processes. In this multiscale approach, the thermodynamics and transport properties are obtained through Molecular Dynamics (MD) and then mapped as Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) parameters. Our objective is two-fold: i) to quantify the porosity versus permeability relation for different pore geometry and size distribution and ii) determine how a given nanoparticle dispersion can effectivelly displace oil. More specifically, we study the injection of nanoparticle dispersion in montmorillonite (MMT) clay pore structures, previously filled by oil. Distinct functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles have been considered (hydroxylated, sulfonic acid, and polyethyleneglycol) dispersed in brine (API: 8% NaCl and 2% CaCl 2 ). In addition, this displacement process is studied in porous media that have the same porosity but different geometric configurations, varying: form (squares, hexagons, octogons and circles), size (circles of four different ratio) and pore distribution (four configurations). Our results indicate that for a given porosity and same injected fluid, more oil is displaced for sq
Palavras-chave: Enhanced Oil Recovery; Lattice Boltzmann Method; Molecular Dynamics; Microfluidics; Nanoparticles