Transport Phenomena of Nanoparticles and Their Applications in Enhancing Oil Recovery

为了维持油气生产，在石油工业中已经广泛实施了强化采油（EOR）技术，因为对于轻质和中质油藏以及重油油藏，初次采油和二次采油后的残余油饱和度通常分别在原始石油地质储量（OOIP）的50-60%和高达90%的范围内。由于其独特的物理和化学性质，实验室实验和现场应用表明，纳米颗粒可以通过改变润湿性、降低界面张力、控制流动性、减少沥青质沉淀和减轻精细运移来提高石油采收率，尽管很少有人试图从理论上量化纳米颗粒在储层条件下在地层岩石中的命运和迁移行为。纳米颗粒与各种EOR技术（例如，低矿化度水注入、蒸汽/热水注入和烷烃溶剂增强的CO2注入）尚未进行理论和数值评估，这主要是由于下面的EOR机理仍然存在争议的事实。这项研究的总体目标不仅是量化纳米颗粒的传输现象，而且还研究和开发合适的纳米技术，以提高常规和非常规油气藏的石油采收率。在这项拟议的研究中，将提出一种全面和系统的方法来量化相行为以及储层流体，外部注入剂和智能纳米颗粒之间的质量和热量传递，描述多相流系统的纳米颗粒传输，识别潜在的机制以及协同效应，并优化纳米颗粒辅助EOR技术的储层性能。最后，新开发的技术将与现有的储层模拟器（例如，CMG）在不确定性条件下设计和优化纳米颗粒辅助EOR工艺。这项拟议研究的科学发现不仅将用于准确量化纳米颗粒传输现象，还将用于设计和优化纳米颗粒辅助EOR技术。此外，拟议的研究将使石油工业能够以具有成本效益和可持续的方式释放巨大的石油和天然气储量，同时最大限度地减少对环境的影响。拟议的研究将为在石油工程和纳米技术开发领域培养高素质人才提供重要机会。这些HQP将是加拿大在这些重要技术领域的宝贵资产。

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.