Nanoparticle-CO2 foams: New methods for carbon storage and oil recovery via pore-scale microfluidics

该提案描述了纳米颗粒稳定的二氧化碳泡沫的开发和测试，用于碳储存和使用微流体提高石油采收率。其目的是通过将二氧化碳包装到具有界面稳定的纳米颗粒的泡沫中来实现孔规模的流动性控制。3年的可交付产品是一种可供油藏使用的纳米颗粒-二氧化碳泡沫，在稳定性和成本方面比目前的技术(表面活性剂和聚合物驱)有数量级的改进。这项工作得益于基于微流体的开发新概念，筛选和量化了在油藏温度、压力和孔隙大小下的二氧化碳泡沫性能。这种方法将独一无二地实现二氧化碳泡沫稳定性、二氧化碳储存、石油采收率和成本的量化，这是支持组织-加拿大阿帕奇和Cenovus Energy-加拿大在二氧化碳强化石油回收方面的世界领先者所要求的。 由于(A)化石燃料在全球能源中的主导地位(86%)和(B)变革所需的长期时间尺度(50年至100年)，碳管理是一项短期可持续发展的当务之急。将二氧化碳注入储油层，兼具储存和采油功能，已逐渐成为碳管理的主要经济和可行途径。然而，二氧化碳相对于石油的高流动性目前限制了二氧化碳的储存和石油回收的潜力。纳米颗粒稳定的二氧化碳泡沫的开发将使目前大规模运营的加拿大能源业务在短期内实现碳节约。除了为加拿大带来环境和经济利益外，高级人员还将接受培训，以与该集团为学术界和加拿大能源行业生产HQP的记录保持一致。 这项工作直接涉及“更清洁化石燃料”目标领域内的两个领域：“非常规石油和天然气开采”和“碳捕获和封存”。

This proposal describes the development and testing of nanoparticle-stabilized CO2 foam for carbon storage and enhanced oil recovery using microfluidics. The aim is pore-scale mobility control achieved by packaging CO2 into foams with interface-stabilizing nanoparticles. The 3-year deliverable is a reservoir-ready nanoparticle-CO2 foam with order of magnitude improvements over current technologies (surfactants and polymer floods) in terms of stability and cost. The work is enabled by the novel concept of microfluidics-based development, screening and quantification of CO2 foam performance at reservoir temperatures, pressures and pore sizes. This method will uniquely enable the quantification of CO2 foam stability, CO2 storage, oil recovery and cost as required before adoption by supporting organizations Apache Canada and Cenovus Energy - Canadian world leaders in CO2-enhanced oil recovery. Carbon management is a near-term sustainability imperative due to (a) the dominance of fossil fuels in global energy (86%) and (b) the long timescale required for change (50-100 yrs). Injecting CO2 into oil reservoirs for a combination of storage and oil recovery functions has evolved as the primary economical and feasible route to carbon management. However, the high mobility of CO2 relative to oil currently limits both the CO2 storage and oil recovery potential. The development of nanoparticle-stabilized CO2 foams will enable near-term carbon savings in Canadian energy operations currently operating at scale. In addition to environmental and economic benefits to Canada, top personnel will be trained in keeping with the group's track record of generating HQP for academia and the Canadian energy industry. This work addresses both areas within the "Cleaner Fossil Fuels" target area directly: "Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction" and "Carbon Capture and Storage".