Modeling and laboratory investigations of microbial oil recovery mechanisms in porous media

Technical Report · Tue Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10107130· OSTI ID:10107130

Chang, M M; Bryant, R S; Stepp, A K; Bertus, K M

Simulation and experimental results on the transport of microbes and nutrients in one-dimensional cores are presented, and the development of a three-dimensional, three-phase, multiple-component numerical model to describe the microbial transport and oil recovery in porous media is described. The change of rock`s wettability and associated relative permeability values after microbial treatments were accounted for in the model for additional oil recovery. Porosity and permeability reductions due to cell clogging have been considered and the production of gas by microbial metabolism has been incorporated. Governing equations for microbial and nutrient transport are coupled with continuity and flow equations under conditions appropriate for a black oil reservoir. The computer simulator has been used to determine the effects of various transport parameters on microbial transport phenomena. The model can accurately describe the observed transport of microbes, nutrients, and metabolites in coreflooding experiments. Input parameters are determined by matching laboratory experimental results. The model can be used to predict the propagation of microbes and nutrients in a model reservoir and to optimize injection strategies. Optimization of injection strategy results in increased oil recovery due to improvements in sweep efficiency. Field-scale numerical simulation studies using data from relative permeability experiments indicated that microbial treatment could improve oil recovery over waterflooding alone. This report addresses the work conducted under project BE3 of the FY92 annual plan.

• Research Organization: National Inst. for Petroleum and Energy Research, Bartlesville, OK (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FC22-83FE60149
• OSTI ID: 10107130
• Report Number(s): NIPER--629; ON: DE93000105
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY
DRILL CORES
DRILLING AND PRODUCTION
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROBIAL EOR
MICROORGANISMS
PETROLEUM
POROSITY
POROUS MATERIALS
SANDSTONES
SWEEP EFFICIENCY
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TRANSPORT