Influence of wettability and permeability heterogeneity on miscible CO 2 flooding efficiency

Bikkina, Prem; Wan, Jiamin; Kim, Yongman; Kneafsey, Timothy J.; Tokunaga, Tetsu K.

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2015.10.090

Influence of wettability and permeability heterogeneity on miscible CO₂ flooding efficiency

Journal Article · Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Fuel

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2015.10.090· OSTI ID:1466690

Bikkina, Prem ^[1]; ^[2]; Kim, Yongman ^[2]; Kneafsey, Timothy J. ^[2]; Tokunaga, Tetsu K. ^[2]

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

CO₂ flooding is a proven enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique and is also considered as a potential method for CO₂ sequestration. Despite having successful field trials on CO₂ EOR, the effects of reservoir wettability and permeability heterogeneity on the efficiency of miscible CO₂ flooding are not well understood. In this work, laboratory investigations have been carried out to evaluate the influence of these properties on the miscible CO₂ EOR performance. The wettability of hydrophilic Berea core samples was altered to be oil-wet by vacuum saturation of the clean and dry core samples with n-hexadecane. The permeability heterogeneity was obtained by combining two half pieces of axially split water-wet core samples of different permeabilities. Core flooding experiments were conducted for n-hexadecane - synthetic brine - CO₂ systems at 1400 psig backpressure to achieve minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) of CO₂ in n-hexadecane at the test temperature (24 ± 1 °C). It was found that wettability strongly influences CO₂ EOR. For the alternate cases of previously brine flooded (to remaining oil saturation) oil-wet and water-wet core samples, five pore volumes (PVs) of CO₂ recovered 100% and only 43% of remaining oil in place (ROIP) respectively. Three PVs of CO₂ could recover only about 0-5% ROIP from the split core samples. The mechanisms underlying these results are discussed. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the significant influence of reservoir wettability and permeability heterogeneity on the performance of miscible CO₂ EOR.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Nanoscale Control of Geologic CO2 (NCGC); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1466690

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1397533

Journal Information:: Fuel, Journal Name: Fuel Journal Issue: C Vol. 166; ISSN 0016-2361

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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02 PETROLEUM
CO2 enhanced oil recovery
EOR)Reservoir wettability
core flooding
miscible flooding
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