Application of Ferrofluid for Enhanced Surfactant Flooding in EOR

Abstract

Abstract Improved Oil Recovery (IOR), techniques offer prospects that enhance the displacement of oil from the reservoir, ultimately producing 30 to 60 percent, or more, of the reservoir's original oil in place. The most important criteria in IOR- Surfactant Flooding is to determine if the interfacial tension (IFT) can be reduced enough to produce incremental oil. One of the key recovery problems in oil-wet reservoir is overcoming the surface tension forces that tend to bind the oil to the rock. In water wet reservoirs, surface tension forces act to create bubbles of oil, which can block pore passages as the bubble resists movement in the increased surface area associated with squeezing through the passages. These surface tension forces are the primary reason why reservoirs become increasingly impermeable to oil, relative to water, as the water saturation increases. Ferrofluids are a special category of smart nano-materials, in particular magnetically controllable nanofluids. The ferromagnetic nano-particles are coated with a surfactant to prevent their agglomeration. As a result of their composition, Ferrofluids possess a unique combination of fluidity and the capability to interact with a magnetic field. The addition of a surfactant will greatly reduce the Interfacial Tension and in water-wet reservoirs, where oil globules are formed, ferrofluid shatters it. Also, as ferrofluid comes in contact with the reservoir fluid, it interacts with the crude in the reservoir & due to the presence of dipole moment, the reservoir fluid molecules align, thus reducing the resistance to the flow. To sum up, reduction in Interfacial tension, thus reducing resistance to the flow, can be easily achieved by making use of Ferrofluid-enhanced surfactant. Oil can be made even more polar using Ferrofluid which will act as a better solvent for the surfactant.