Designer emulsions for enhanced oil recovery

在阿尔伯塔和萨斯喀彻温省，大量的石油仍然被锁在被认为是传统开采技术枯竭的油藏和稠油油田中。乳化液驱是一种潜在的提高采收率（EOR）技术，它可以促进剩余稠油的释放。特别设计的水包油乳液将用作低能量非热EOR驱剂。Diamond QC Technologies Inc.，Quadrise Canda公司的全资子公司，旨在开发这项技术，作为其多年研发项目的一部分，在燃料和石油和天然气技术中的水包油乳液。该公司专门生产稳定的水包油乳液，采用重油，沥青和戊烷沉淀沥青质。为了确保采用Diamond QC Technologies开发的乳液配方的过程的成功，拟议项目的目标是阐明地层油、驱油乳液、孔隙水和固相如何在储层的多孔结构内相互作用，以及如何优化乳液配方以最大限度地提高石油采收率。与Diamond QC Technologies研究人员合作的四名学术研究人员的集体专业知识将集中在对这种EOR方法背后的孔隙尺度物理和化学过程的基本理解上。这项研究将为乳状液驱油提供基本的认识，并将对油藏模拟器中使用的孔隙尺度性质和运移模型进行重大改进。所获得的知识基础将有助于研究水包油乳液作为EOR刺激剂的可行性。这项研究的成功可能会通过引入新的EOR技术使萨斯喀彻温省的重油工业恢复生机，并为阿尔伯塔的重油勘探开辟新的机会。

An astounding amount of petroleum still remains locked in the reservoirs and heavy oil fields that are considered depleted in terms of traditional extraction technologies in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Emulsion flooding is a potential enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique, which may facilitate release of this remaining heavy oil. Specially designed oil-in-water emulsions will be employed as low energy non-thermal EOR flooding agents. Diamond QC Technologies Inc., a fully owned subsidiary of Quadrise Canda Corporation, is aiming to develop this technology as part of its multi-year R&D project on oil-in-water emulsions in fuels and oil and gas technology. The company specializes in creation of stable oil-in-water emulsions employing heavy oil, bitumen, and pentane precipitated asphaltenes. To ensure success of the process employing the emulsion formulations developed by Diamond QC Technologies, the goal of the proposed project is to elucidate how the formation oil, flooding emulsion, pore water, and solid phases interact within the porous structures of the reservoirs, and how to optimize the emulsion formulations to maximize oil recovery. The collective expertise of four academic researchers collaborating with Diamond QC Technologies researchers will be focused toward attaining a fundamental understanding of the pore-scale physical and chemical processes underlying this EOR method. The proposed study will provide fundamental insights into emulsion based EOR, and spearhead major improvements in pore-scale property and transport models used in reservoir simulators. The acquired knowledge base will be instrumental in studying the viability of oil-in-water emulsions as EOR stimulants. The success of the study can potentially bring back to life the heavy oil industry in Saskatchewan by introducing a new EOR technology and open up new opportunities for heavy oil exploration in Alberta.