Surfactants and microemulsions as flow conditioners for reservoirs

该应用旨在了解表面活性剂和萜烯（橙油）微乳液在促进油气通过致密地层的输送方面的作用。研究合作伙伴工程化学公司（ECI）将对这些信息特别感兴趣，考虑到储层的地球化学特征，为水力压裂和增产作业选择合适的复杂纳米流体（CnF®，萜烯微乳液）。纳米流体的选择是通过在储层钻屑充填床上进行的反排实验来确定的。然而，岩屑的非均质性使人们无法确定CnF®与地层中矿物质之间的具体相互作用。了解这些相互作用（表面能、润湿性、渗透率、表面活性剂/萜烯吸附）将有助于确定关注的领域和机会。此外，电解质浓度和温度的变化也会引起表面活性剂-萜烯-矿物相互作用的变化。为了解决这些差距，将确定表面活性剂/CnF®-气体，表面活性剂/CnF®-油界面的表面能，以及油/气/（表面活性剂/CnF®）对已知矿物（石英，长石，方解石和用于模拟干酪根沉积的沥青质涂层玻璃）的润湿性。表面活性剂/CnF®的吸附也将被确定，随着表面活性剂/CnF®的运输性质应用于柱与感兴趣的矿物填充。输运特性（反排实验）将作为这些配方的初步有效性测试。配方条件将通过亲水-亲脂-差异（HLD）框架进行评估，该框架考虑了表面活性剂和油的固有疏水性，电解质的浓度和类型以及系统的温度。我们假设表面活性剂和萜烯的吸附会影响输运性质，并且HLD可以用于确定给定地层地球化学的最佳CnF®配方。

The application seeks to understand the role of surfactants and terpene (orange oils) microemulsions infacilitating the transport of oil and gas through tight formations. This information will be of particular interestto the research partner, Engineered Chemistries Inc. (ECI), for the selection of appropriate complex nanofluids(CnF®, terpene microemulsions) for hydraulic fracturing and well stimulation operations, considering thegeochemistry of the reservoir.Nanofluid selection is informed by flowback experiments conducted on packed bed of drill cuttings obtainedfrom the reservoir. However, the heterogeneity of the cuttings prevents one from identifying specificinteractions between CnF® and the minerals in the formation. Knowing these interactions (surface energies,wettability, permeability, surfactant/ terpene adsorption) will help identifying areas of concerns andopportunities. Furthermore, changes in electrolyte concentration and temperature can also bring about changesin the surfactant-terpene-mineral interaction.To address these gaps, the surface energies of surfactant/CnF®-gas, surfactant/CnF®-oil interfaces, and thewettability of oil/gas/(surfactant/CnF®) on known minerals (quartz, feldspar, calcite, and asphaltene-coatedglass used to simulate kerogen deposits) will be determined. The adsorption of surfactant/CnF® will also bedetermined, along with the transport properties of surfactant/CnF® applied to the columns packed with theminerals of interest. The transport properties (flowback experiments) will be taken as a preliminary efficacytest for these formulations. The formulation conditions will be assessed via thehydrophilic-lipophilic-difference (HLD) framework, which considers the intrinsic hydrophobicities of thesurfactant and oil, the concentration and type of electrolyte, and the temperature of the system. We hypothesizethat the adsorption of surfactant and terpene influences the transport properties, and the HLD can be used toidentify the best CnF® formulation for a given formation geochemistry.