الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Crude oil and other petroleum products are crucial to the global economy today due to increasing energy demand approximately (~1.5%) per year and significant oil remaining after primary and secondary oil recovery (~45-55% of original oil in place, OOIP), which accelerates the development of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies to maximize the recovered oil amount by non-conventional methods. Polymer flooding through hydrophobically associated polyacrylamides (HAPAM) is a widely implemented EOR-technique to maximize recovered oil amount, so they attracted much attention on both academic and industrial laboratories for polymer flooding in enhanced oil recovery applications. These polymers class synthesized by grafting or incorporating hydrophobic chain cross-linking segments onto their hydrophilic main chain. In this study, the authors reported about synthesis of polymeric surfmer (surface-active monomers) which have amphiphilic structure with polymerizable vinyl double bonds in the molecular structure resulting in novel properties distinct from conventional surfactants. Hydrophobically associating polyacrylamide (HAPAM) prepared by free radical emulsion polymerization of acrylamide (AM) monomer, divinyl sulfone as hydrophobic crosslinked moiety and surfmers, to chemically anchor a surfmer and hydrophobic crosslinker moiety onto the back bone of acrylamide chain. After that, polymeric nanocomposite was prepared through copolymerization of prepared HAPAM with different molar ratios of silica nanoparticles through one shot synthesis. The effects of initiator concentration, monomer concentration, silica concentration, cross linker concentration, surfmers concentration and reaction temperature on apparent viscosity of the product were determined using single- factor and orthogonal experiments. i Abstract Chemical structure of the prepared composites were proven through different techniques such as fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), while particle size and particle size distribution were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and thermal properties characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis(TGA) and differential scanning Calorimetry(DSC). Rheological properties for the prepared composites were evaluated at simulated severe reservoir conditions of high temperature and high ionic strength to test their compatibility for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications. Flooding experiments carried out through one-dimensional sandstone packed model at simulated reservoir conditions, where recovered oil amount calculated to determine recovery factor. Moreover, the novel composites ability for rock wettability alteration was investigated through contact angle measurement by static sessile DROP method. The obtained results show high resistance factor (RF) and residual resistance factor (RRF) values, also oil recovery reach to 48-60% of residual oil saturation (Sor), in addition to their ability to alter wettability of sandstone rock from oil-wet to water-wet, consequently increase recovered oil amount. The preliminary feasibility study indicates positive economics for enhanced oil recovery through applications of the novel composites. This indicates that the new composites are promising EOR candidates at harsh reservoir conditions of high salinity and high temperature. |