Surfactants and microemulsions as flow conditioners for reservoirs

该申请旨在了解表面活性剂和萜类(橙油)微乳液在促进油气通过致密地层输送方面的作用。这些信息将使研究伙伴工程化学公司(ECI)特别感兴趣，以选择适用于水力压裂和油井增产作业的复杂纳米流体(CNF®，萜烯微乳液)，并考虑到储层的地球化学。纳米流体的选择是通过在从储层获得的钻屑填充床上进行的回流实验来实现的。然而，岩屑的非均质性使人们无法确定CNF®与地层中矿物之间的具体相互作用。了解这些相互作用(表面能、润湿性、渗透性、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，电解液浓度和温度的变化也会导致表面活性剂-萜烯-矿物相互作用的变化。为了弥补这些差距，将测定表面活性剂/CNF®气体、表面活性剂/CNF®石油界面的表面能，以及石油/天然气/(表面活性剂/CNF®)在已知矿物(石英、长石、方解石和用于模拟干酪根沉积的沥青质镀膜玻璃)上的润湿性。还将测定表面活性剂/CNF®的吸附，以及应用于填充有感兴趣矿物的色谱柱的表面活性剂/CNF®的传输特性。输运性能(回流实验)将被作为这些配方的初步有效性测试。配方条件将通过亲水亲油差(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、电解液的浓度和类型以及体系的温度。我们假设表面活性剂和萜烯的吸附影响输送性能，HLD可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.