The Role of Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

提高石油采收率（EOR）是指将水/气体与可能的添加剂注入石油储层以生产更多的石油。EOR通常针对在油田开始产生太多水/气并且油产量降低之后的注水或气驱后残余油。有效的EOR方法的目标是孔隙规模采收率以及大规模油田（垂直和面积）波及效率。提高采收率方法的选择和有效性取决于原油和储层岩石的性质。本研究的目标是优化纳米粒子强化水驱常规采油使用离岸纽芬兰油田作为案例研究。实验室研究表明，纳米颗粒强化水驱（一种化学提高采收率的方法）可能是有效的，因为纳米颗粒可以改变水和残余油之间的界面张力，纳米颗粒可以改变岩石的润湿性（接触角）。一个挑战是在储层条件下在盐水（不同盐度）中形成稳定的纳米颗粒-水溶液。纳米颗粒也可以吸附到岩石表面。这可能会产生积极或消极的影响，这取决于岩石的润湿性是否发生了有利的变化。此外，如果纳米颗粒优先吸附到岩石上，它们可能无法降低水和油之间的界面张力。这项研究将系统地研究在油藏条件下使用不同的商业纳米颗粒进行EOR。我们将研究纳米颗粒盐水溶液在一系列油藏条件下的稳定性。纳米颗粒增强的盐水和油的界面张力作为纳米颗粒类型、浓度、水盐度和油组成、温度和压力的函数将使用悬滴法来确定。 我们将研究润湿性（接触角）作为纳米颗粒吸附在岩石上的矿物学和纳米颗粒类型的基础上的功能。在描述了流体-流体和流体-岩石性质之后，我们将使用两种类型的实验室规模储层（微观模型和岩心），以研究和优化基于流体性质的纳米颗粒增强注水（水的盐度、纳米颗粒的类型和浓度、注入速率和体积）和储层性质（孔径分布、渗透率和矿物学）对不同质量的回收率的影响（20- 35 oAPI）常规油。通过这项研究，我们将筛选和优化纳米颗粒增强水驱的实际和一般的现场应用（砂岩储层中的常规油），使用纽芬兰近海油田条件作为案例研究。

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) refers to the injection of water/gas with possible additives into a petroleum reservoir to produce more oil. EOR typically targets post waterflood or gas flood residual oil after the field starts producing too much water/gas and oil production decreases. Effective EOR methods target both pore scale recovery as well as large scale field (vertical and areal) sweep efficiency. The choice and effectiveness of EOR methods depend on the oil and reservoir rock properties. The goal of this research is to optimise nanoparticle enhanced waterflooding for conventional oil recovery using the offshore Newfoundland oil fields as case studies. This work is important to the sustainable and increased production of Canada's conventional oil and our resource based economy.Laboratory research has shown that nanoparticle enhanced waterflooding, a type of chemical EOR, may be effective because the nanoparticles may alter the interfacial tension between the water and residual oil, and the nanoparticles may alter the wettability (contact angle) of the rock. One challenge is forming a stable nanoparticle-water solution in brine water (varying salinity) at reservoir conditions. Nanoparticles may also adsorb to the rock surface. This may have a positive or negative impact depending on whether wettability of the rock is changed favourably. Also, if the nanoparticles preferentially adsorb to the rock, they may not be available to decrease the interfacial tension between the water and oil.This research will systematically examine the use of different commercially available nanoparticles for EOR at reservoir conditions. We will investigate the stability of the nanoparticle-brine solutions over a range of reservoir conditions. The interfacial tension of the nanoparticle enhanced brine and oil as a function of nanoparticle type, concentration, water salinity, and oil composition, temperature, and pressure will be determined using the pendant drop method. We will examine the wettability (contact angle) as a function of nanoparticle adsorption on the rock based on the mineralogy and nanoparticle type. Having characterised the fluid-fluid and fluid-rock properties, we will use two types of laboratory scale reservoirs (micromodels and cores) to investigate and optimise nanoparticle enhanced waterflooding based on the fluid properties (salinity of the water, type and concentration of nanoparticles, injection rate, and volume) and reservoir properties (pore size distribution, permeability, and mineralogy) on the recovery of different quality (20-35oAPI) conventional oils.Through this research, we will screen and optimise nanoparticle enhanced waterflooding for practical and general field application (conventional oil in sandstone reservoirs) using offshore Newfoundland field conditions as a case study.