A relatively new concept for stabilizing carbon dioxide-in-water foams for enhanced oil recovery and CO2 sequestration is to design nanoparticles that adsorb at the interface.  A concept of hydrophilic/CO2-philic balance (HCB) may be defined to describe the surface chemistry on the nanoparticles, which influences stabilization of carbon dioxide-in-water (C/W) foams.  The HCB has a large effect on the stabilities and viscosities of the foams. The apparent viscosity of C/W foams with fine texture (bubble sizes less than 100�m) increased up to 120 fold of the value without nanoparticles upon foam generation by shearing CO2 and water phases in a beadpack.  Long-term stability of nanoparticle-stabilized C/W foams was also demonstrated in terms of foam resolution.  The ability to achieve viscous and stable C/W foams with properly designed nanoparticles could offer an alternative to conventional surfactants.

Carbon dioxide-in-water foams stabilized with interfacially active nanoparticles

245th National Meeting (2013)

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