Development of microfluidic devices for Enhanced Oil Revcorery (EOR) studies

C. OLMOS; A.PEÑAHERRERA; G. ROSERO; A. BOSCHAN; P GRANELL; F. GOLMAR; C. LASORSA; B LERNER; M PEREZ

cordoba

Congreso; Congreso internacional de metalurgia y materiales 16 SAM-CONAMET; 2016

Nanoparticles injection method is a new Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) method. Its purpose is to reduce the production water by reducing permeability of channeled zones. The success of injection depends on the characteristics of the water, the porous medium and oil, so that an injection is successful in a reservoir can be different in another, hence the importance of a methodology for assessment prior to injection. This work micro and nanotechnology techniques are used to develop microfluidic chips used in EOR test [1]. The field of Microfluidics devices, analytical microsystems are designed to integrate various laboratory operations. EOR chips simulate the phenomena that occur in micro-nano scale reservoirs and thus studying the properties of nanoparticles and microgels in configurations never studied before. This will allow better understanding of the mechanisms of action of both in the reservoir.Experiments were analyzing multiphase flows in porous media inside chips. First was saturated with water and second with oil (1 poral volume 1VP). Water is then injected with at constant flow until a residual petroleum fraction is observed that no longer can be eliminated. And finally nanoparticles or microgels are injected and behavior of these is studied by image analysis. Also the size and physical properties of nanoparticles and EOR microgels within the chip was characterized to understand the physical phenomena of aggregation into porous media. Results allowed obtaining graphs of oil residual saturation versus time for pore volumes fluid used in EOR.