Oil recovery performance in the co­injection flooding of Co2 with non­polar chemical modifiers using micromodel system

• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/25244/1/Oil%20recovery%20performance%20in%20the%20co%C2%ADinjection%20flooding%20of%20Co2.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/25244/

This research work investigated the possibility for the significant influence of the addition of non-polar chemical modifiers with CO2 on improving the extraction capability of CO2 with crude oil, with regards to the solvents rule of 'like dissolves like' by using a micro-model system. Micromodel system allows oil recovery to be studied at the pore scale which determines the large scale flow patterns of oil reservoirs. Thus, by optimizing oil recovery at the pore scale, ultimate oil recovery can be achieved. Other than that, not all oil reservoirs in Malaysian waters are operating at miscible conditions. Thus, the research also investigated the performance of the co-injection of CO2 and non-polar chemical modifiers at both immiscible conditions and miscible conditions. An economic analysis had also been conducted from the oil recovery data obtained from the experiments to evaluate the potential of the technology to be implemented in the Malaysian reservoirs. From the experiments conducted using micro-model system at immiscible conditions, it was found that extraction of crude oil improved with the addition of non­polar chemical modifiers with the highest oil recovery achieved of 52.54% by co-injection of gaseous CO2 and toluene, as compared to oil recovery of 27.73% by gaseous CO2 alone after 20 Pore Volume (PV) of fluid injected. At miscible conditions, the extraction of crude oil also improved with the addition of non-polar chemical modifiers with the highest oil recovery, 71.87%, achieved by co-injection if CO2 and toluene, as compared to oil recovery of 44. 77% by injection of supercritical CO2 alone after 20 Pore Volume (PV) of fluid injected. From the economic analysis conducted, it can be concluded that miscible process is more economically attractive with injection of supercritical CO2 at miscible conditions producing profits of RM582.36, whereas its counterpart, gaseous CO2 at immiscible conditions only produces profit of RM394.47, with the same amount of fluids injected, 16000 litres (L).