Transport Phenomena of Nanoparticles and Their Applications in Enhancing Oil Recovery

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Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques have been widely implemented in the petroleum industry in order to sustain oil and gas production since residual oil saturation after primary recovery and secondary recovery is generally in the range of 50-60% and up to 90% of the original oil in place (OOIP) for light- and medium-oil reservoirs and heavy oil reservoirs, respectively. Due to the unique physical and chemical properties, laboratory experiments and field applications have shown that nanoparticles can enhance oil recovery through wettability alteration, interfacial tension reduction, mobility control, asphaltene precipitation reduction, and fine migration mitigation, though few attempts have been made to theoretically quantify the fate and transport behaviour of nanoparticles in formation rocks under reservoir conditions. The performance of nanoparticles with various EOR techniques (e.g., low salinity water injection, steam/hot water injection, and alkane solvents-enhanced CO2 injection) has not been theoretically and numerically evaluated due mainly to the fact that the underlying EOR mechanisms remain controversial. The overall objective of this proposed research is to not only quantify the transport phenomena of nanoparticles, but also to investigate and develop suitable nanotechnologies for enhancing oil recovery from both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. In this proposed research, a comprehensive and systematic approach will be proposed to quantify phase behaviour together with mass and heat transfer among reservoir fluids, external injectants, and intelligent nanoparticles, describe nanoparticle transport for multiphase flow systems, identify the underlying mechanisms together with synergistic effects, and optimize reservoir performance of the nanoparticle-assisted EOR techniques. Finally, the newly developed techniques will be integrated with the existing reservoir simulators (e.g., CMG) to design and optimize nanoparticle-assisted EOR processes under uncertainty. The scientific findings from this proposed research will be used to not only accurately quantify nanoparticle transport phenomena, but also design and optimize nanoparticle-assisted EOR techniques. In addition, the proposed research would enable the petroleum industry to unlock the vast oil and gas reserves in a cost-effective and sustainable manner while minimizing environmental impacts. The proposed research will provide important opportunities for training highly qualified personnel (HQP) in the areas of both petroleum engineering and nano-technological development. These HQP will be valuable assets for Canada in these important technical fields.