Investigation of Polymer Slug Viscosity in Porous Media

• Main Author: Sidek Ali, Amirruddin Ali
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2012
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9841/1/2012%20-%20Investigation%20of%20Polymer%20Slug%20Viscosity%20in%20Porous%20Media.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9841/

In order to maintain reservoir pressure and also to sweep out oil efficiently, water flooding became the standard practice in many reservoir formations. The efficiency of the water flood oil displacement mechanism as a result of an unfavorable mobility ratio was identified. Polymer solutions are designed to develop a favorable mobility ratio between injected polymer solution and the oil or water bank being displaced a head of the polymer. The purpose is to develop a more uniform volumetric sweep of the reservoir, both vertically and aerially. An experimental study has been conducted to examine the effects of a dilute aqueous solutions of a partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide polymer, over a wide range of parameters. In general, the viscosityshear rate relationship was found to obey the Newtonian behavior at low shear rates and a power-law behavior at high shear rates with the power indices from 0.2 to 0.6. However, adding an ionic species such as sodium chloride (NaCl), reduced the hydrodynamic size of the polymer molecule (physical change), changing the viscosityshear rate relationship. The viscosity-shear rate relationship was found to be a strong function of cation type only at salt concentrations less than 2 wt%. The viscosity values showed that polymer solutions are more affected by the different molecular weight of polymer than the degree of hydrolysis used. The higher concentration of polymer will make the polymer solution viscosity increasing. The different pressure applied on the polymer solution will effect on the viscosity at the certain range. This study demonstrates the effect of several parameters to the polymer solution viscosity that significantly influencing the performance of chemical flooding in EOR.