The application of nanofluids for recovery of asphaltenic oil

Petroleum Science and Technology ISSN: 1091-6466 (Print) 1532-2459 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/lpet20 The application of nanofluids for recovery of asphaltenic oil Hamed Farhangian, Seyyed Milad Abrishamifar, Masih Palizian, Milad Janghorban Lariche & Alireza Baghban To cite this article: Hamed Farhangian, Seyyed Milad Abrishamifar, Masih Palizian, Milad Janghorban Lariche & Alireza Baghban (2018): The application of nanofluids for recovery of asphaltenic oil, Petroleum Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/10916466.2017.1421968 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10916466.2017.1421968 Published online: 15 Jan 2018. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=lpet20 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY , VOL. , NO. , – https://doi.org/./.. The application of nanofluids for recovery of asphaltenic oil Hamed Farhangiana , Seyyed Milad Abrishamifarb , Masih Palizianc , Milad Janghorban Lariched , and Alireza Baghbane a Department of Chemical Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran; b Department of Chemical Engineering, New York international university of technology and management, New York, USA; c Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology,  Hafez Ave, Tehran, Iran; d Abadan School of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran; e Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Mahshahr Campus, Mahshahr, Iran ABSTRACT KEYWORDS In the recent years, requirement of suitable enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique as a more proficient technology becomes significant because of increasing demand for energy. Nanofluids have great potential in order to improve oil recovery. In our study, the effect of SiO2 , Al2 O3 , and MgO nanoparticles on oil recovery was investigated by using core flooding apparatus. Zeta potential and particle size distribution measurements were carried out to investigate the stability of nano particles and results showed SiO2 has more stability than other ones. Interfacial tension and contact angle measurements between nanofluids and crude oil used to demonstrate that how nanoparticles enhance oil recovery. Experimental data reveals that SiO2 nanoparticles introduce as the greatest agent among these nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery. Lowest damage for SiO2 nanofluids was observed and also it was observed that the concentration and injection rate have straight effects on permeability reductions. nanofluid; enhanced oil recovery; zeta potential; wettability; interfacial tension 1. Introduction Recently by increasing demand for fuel and energy, attention to EOR and novel methods in oil production increases. The reservoirs in all over the world cannot produce most of their oil in place naturally so the importance of EOR methods is obvious (Taber, Martin, and Seright 1997; Lake 1989; Latil 1980). The residual oil is a function of forces between fluids and rocks so it is reasonable to change forces between them. One of the well-known methods is chemical flooding such as Nanofluids injection to reservoirs. Nano technology has different applications in petroleum engineering (Madhi et al. 2017; El-Diasty and Aly 2015; Cheraghian 2016). Nanoparticles can affect wettability and change the recovery of the reservoir by altering rocks wettability (Ju, Fan, and Ma 2006; Ju and Fan 2009; Onyekonwu and Ogolo 2010; Joonaki and Ghanaatian 2014). Li et al. used Amott test to find out the effect of SiO2 on wettability alteration (Li et al. 2015). Mahdi et al. used nano and biomaterial to change the wettability of shale from oil wet to water wet (Mohebbifar, Ghazanfari, and Vossoughi 2015). Karimi et al. investigated the effect of ZrO2 nanoparticles on carbonate reservoir rocks and concluded that ZrO2 nanofluids can alter wettability of rock to water wet (Karimi et al. 2012). Hendraningrat et al. (Hendraningrat, Li, and Torsæter 2013; Torsater, Li, and Hendraningrat 2013) measured IFT between oil and nanofluids and find out nanoparticles can reduce IFT between oil and water and concentration of nanoparticles has a straight effect on IFT reduction. As mentioned, it seems nanofluids can help in enhancement of CONTACT Hamed Farhangian [email protected] Department of Chemical Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran; [email protected] Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Alireza Baghban Mahshahr Campus, Mahshahr , Iran. Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lpet. ©  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 2 H. FARHANGIAN ET AL. Table . Properties of nanoparticles. Properties Producer Color Morphology Density g/cc Average particles size, nm Specific surface area m /g SiO Al O MgO TECNAN White Spherical . –  TECNAN White Spherical . –  Neutrino White Spherical . <  oil recovery so an experimental study is designed to investigate the effect of different nanoparticles on IFT, wettability, permeability reduction and at last oil recovery. To the Best of our knowledge MgO nano fluids were not investigated in similar structure studies so it seems that investigation of MgO nanofluid besides the SiO2 and Al2 O3 and comparing them gives a good insight in this field. Also using particle size distribution and zeta potential to check stability of these nanofluids ensure the researchers about experimental conditions because stability of nanofluids is known as important factor which affects the results. 2. Experimental 2.1. Materials The nanoparticles which are used in this experimental study are commercial nanoparticles SiO2 , Al2 O3, and MgO. They were purchased from TECNAN and neutrino companies and their properties are shown in Table 1. In this experiments, one of Iranian crude oil was used which its viscosity and density are 36 cp and 0.897 g/cc, respectively and its asphaltene content is 2.1 percent. For core flood test from one of Iranian reservoir seven cores are provided which their properties are shown in Table 2. The synthetic reservoir brine with a concentration of 20000 ppm is prepared and used in this study. Nanoparticles with various concentrations were dispersed in deionized water by sonication for 5 hours using Hielscher ultrasonic apparatus. 2.2. Methods Different concentrations of nano fluids 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1 and 2 g/l were used to the investigated effect of nano particles on interfacial tension and wettability alteration. Zetasizer Nano ZS (Malvern) was used to measure particle size distribution and Zeta potential of nano particles to ensure the stability of nano particles during experiments. The particle size distribution of nano particles during the time can be selected as criterion which expresses tendency of nano particles to deposit and aggregate. Zeta potential as another parameter for checking stability was used. The results express that SiO2 nano particle has more stability than others and increasing concentration caused decreasing stability. In IFT measurement the IFT cell was filled by nano fluids and a droplet of oil was injected and the captured pictures were used to realize the effect of nano fluids on IFT reductions. To understand the effect of nano particles on wettability alteration, the contact angle was measured. Thin plates of rock were cut and were place in crude oil in temperature of 60 °C for a week and then were placed in 24 hour in nano fluids before contact angle measurement. Then a picture of oil droplets on the plates was captured and contact angle was Table . Core plugs properties. Core Length (cm) Diameter (cm) Permeability (md) Porosity (%) C C C C C C C  . . .  . .   .  .  . . .  .    . . .  .  . PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3 Figure . Schematic of experimental setup. measured. To prepare cores for core flooding tests, the core plugs were washed by soxhlet and were placed in the oven to dry in temperature of 90 °C for 4 days. The synthetic brine was injected into core then crude oil was injected to core plugs and aged for 4 days to reach equilibrium conditions. The schematic of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. In this experimentation, the first scenario is water injection for two pore volumes and the second scenario is nano fluids injection which was performed for core flooding measurements. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. IFT measurement Figure 2 illustrates the effect of different type of nanofluids with a different concentration on IFT reduction. It shows that SiO2 nanofluid has more impact on IFT reduction and increasing concentration causes more IFT reduction between nanofluids and crude oil. So it can be concluded that from IFT measurement for SiO2 in higher concentration less trapped oil is expected than the Al2 O3 and MgO. Figure . Effect of various nano fluids on IFT reduction. 4 H. FARHANGIAN ET AL. Figure . Effect of various nano fluids on contact angle. 3.2. Contact angle measurement Figure 3 shows the effect of nanoparticles on wettability alteration and it is clear that nanofluids can modify wettability and these alterations for SiO2 are more than that of the others and MgO has less impact on wettability. These nanoparticles change water wet wettability of rock toward oil wet wettability and Fig. 3 shows that concentration of nanofluids have a straight effect on contact angle reductions. 3.3. Core flooding experiments Figure 4 shows the effect of different nanofluids on oil recovery. These experiments were implemented in the flow rate of 0.25 cc/min and concentration of 1 gr/l. As expected from IFT and contact angle measurements the effect of SiO2 on oil recovery is more than others and because MgO has a small impact on IFT and contact angle, MgO nanofluids has less impact on oil recovery by 4.4 percent enhancement of oil recovery. SiO2 nanofluid caused 16.6 percent enhancement in oil recovery and Al2 O3 caused 7.6 percent increasing oil recovery. It is concluded that SiO2 is more favorable for injection. So the effect of SiO2 concentration on oil recovery is investigated in Fig. 5. Also, mentioned figure reveals that oil recovery was increased by the increment in SiO2 concentration. After injection of nanofluids permeability of core plug was calculated by Darcy equation. Table 3 illustrates the effect of concentration, type of nanoparticles and flow rate of permeability reduction. As Figure . Oil recovery versus pore volume injected for different nano fluids injection. PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 5 Figure . Oil recovery versus pore volume injected for different concentration of SiO. Table . Effect of different parameters on permeability reductions. Core C C C C C C C Nano particles concentration g/l flow rate cc/min k reduction after nano fluid injection % SiO SiO SiO SiO SiO ALO MgO    .    . . . . . . .        reported in Table 3, increasing flow rate causes more damage to permeability and as flow rate increases from 0.25 cc/min to 0.7 cc/ min the permeability reduction increase 30 percent. It may be because of the density difference between water and nanoparticles which caused nanoparticles retention and deposition in pore throats of core plug. As mentioned in Table 3, the permeability reduction for SiO2 is less than two other types of nanoparticles so it makes SiO2 nanoparticles more suitable for enhanced oil recovery. Another parameter which influences recovery and permeability reduction is a concentration of nanoparticles that have straight relation to permeability reduction.as mentioned in Table 3 as the concentration of SiO2 increases from 0.5 g/l to 2 g/l the permeability reduction increases from 18 percent to 53 percent. 4. Conclusions In this investigation some coherent experimental was design to investigate different aspects of enhancement oil recovery by Nano fluids. The effect of different type of nano fluids on wettability alteration and IFT reduction was investigated and it is concluded that SiO2 nano fluid has more impact on aforementioned parameters. Zeta potential and PSD measurements were carried out as stability tests because stability of nanofluids affects the permeability and efficiency of enhancement oil recovery. Some core flooding experiments were performed to investigate the effect of SiO2 , Al2 O3, and MgO on oil recovery. A consistent outcome with IFT and contact angle measurements was observed which explains that SiO2 nano fluids are more suitable for injection. Also, it was concluded that the least damage for SiO2 nano fluids and concentration and injection rate have straight effects on permeability reductions which are consistent with results of stability tests. 6 H. FARHANGIAN ET AL. References Cheraghian, Goshtasp. 2016. Application of nano-fumed silica in heavy oil recovery. Review of. Petroleum Science and Technology 34 (1):12–8. El-Diasty, Abdelrahman Ibrahim, and Ahmed M Aly. 2015. Understanding the mechanism of nanoparticles applications in enhanced oil recovery. In SPE North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Cairo, Egypt, September 14–16. Hendraningrat, Luky, Shidong Li, and Ole Torsæter. 2013. A coreflood investigation of nanofluid enhanced oil recovery. Review of. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 111:128–38. Joonaki, E, and S. Ghanaatian. 2014. The application of nanofluids for enhanced oil recovery: effects on interfacial tension and coreflooding process. Review of. Petroleum Science and Technology 32 (21):2599–607. Ju, Binshan, and Tailiang Fan. 2009. Experimental study and mathematical model of nanoparticle transport in porous media. Review of. Powder Technology 192 (2):195–202. Ju, Binshan, Tailiang Fan, and Mingxue Ma. 2006. Enhanced oil recovery by flooding with hydrophilic nanoparticles. Review of. China Particuology 4 (1):41–6. Karimi, Ali, Zahra Fakhroueian, Alireza Bahramian, Nahid Pour Khiabani, Jabar Babaee Darabad, Reza Azin, and Sharareh Arya. 2012. Wettability alteration in carbonates using zirconium oxide nanofluids: EOR implications. Review of. Energy & Fuels 26 (2):1028–36. Lake, Larry W. 1989. Enhanced oil recovery. Society of Petroleum Engineers, 17–39. Latil, Marcel. 1980. Enhanced oil recovery. Paris, France: Éditions Technip. Li, Shidong, Mindaugas Genys, Kun Wang, and Ole Torsæter. 2015. Experimental study of wettability alteration during nanofluid enhanced oil recovery process and its effect on oil recovery. In SPE Reservoir Characterisation and Simulation Conference and Exhibition, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Abu Dhabi, UAE, September 14–16. Madhi, Mehdi, Amin Bemani, Amin Daryasafar, and Mohammad Reza Khosravi Nikou. 2017. Experimental and modeling studies of the effects of different nanoparticles on asphaltene adsorption. Review of. Petroleum Science and Technology 35 (3):242–8. Mohebbifar, Mahdi, Mohammadi Hossein Ghazanfari, and Manouchehr Vossoughi. 2015. Experimental Investigation of Nano-Biomaterial Applications for Heavy Oil Recovery in Shaly Porous Models: A Pore-Level Study. Review of. Journal of Energy Resources Technology 137 (1):014501. Onyekonwu, Mike O, and Naomi A Ogolo. 2010. Investigating the use of nanoparticles in enhancing oil recovery. In Nigeria Annual international conference and exhibition, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Tinapa, Calabar, Nigeria, July 31August 7. Taber, Joseph John, FD Martin, and RS Seright. 1997. EOR screening criteria revisited-Part 1: Introduction to screening criteria and enhanced recovery field projects. Review of. SPE Reservoir Engineering 12 (03):189–98. Torsater, Ole, Shidong Li, and Luky Hendraningrat. 2013. A coreflood investigation of nanofluid enhanced oil recovery in low-medium permeability Berea sandstone. In SPE International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry, Society of Petroleum Engineers, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, April 8-10.