Although the formulation and relevant basic properties of wormlike micelles (WLMs) have been well explored and understood, the applications of such soft colloidal materials were constrained under relative mild conditions. Recently, a great attempt has been made in our laboratory to maximize the potentials of WLMs to be uses in high-pressure, high-temperature, highly-acidic or extreme-low-temperature environments. The first example is the use of WLMs in water-alternate-CO2 flooding to boost oil production. Despite successful stories have been evidenced for over 40 years, inadequacy is still evidenced because both of the low-viscosity water and gas tend to follow highly-permeable paths or open “thief” channels under high pressure, resulting in a loss of the chasing fluid and by-passing of oil-bearing zones. We demonstrated that the water slug containing a CO2-sensitive surfactant can be thickened at 60 °C and 5 MPa when contacting with the pre- and post-CO2 slug, thus blocking the channels and to recover incremental 5.1% oil relative to pure CO2-WAG. A further illustration comes from use of WLMs in matric acidizing at high temperature. To slow down the reaction between acid and rocks, wormlike micelles are always introduced into 20% HCl to dissolve the rock near the wellbore and increase the flow of hydrocarbons from the reservoir into the well. Nevertheless, the currently-used surfactants cannot stand temperature higher than 120 °C. We developed alternative surfactants by introducing stronger bonds into the molecular architecture, and found even at 150 °C, nearly 40 mPa×s of viscosity can be generated with 3% surfactant in 20% HCl solution, which can satisfy the high-temperature oil reservoir stimulation. The last case is the use of WLMs as anti-icing fluids under frozen environment. Undesired ice accretion on the surfaces of aircrafts at subzero temperatures is known to cause severe problems in terms of safety. Specially-designed water-soluble polymers were dissolved in alcohols to remove the accumulated ice. However, hyxrogels may be formd by the residual polymer when it adsorbs moistures in the air, thus leading even more dangerous accidents when the gels are stuck in the elevator. We formulated novel anti-icing fluids by replacing polymer with WLMs, and found they show similar behaviors as polymer solutions, but can be much easier to be removed during the takeoff because of its small-molecule characteristics, thus avoiding the possible disaster.

Wormlike micelles: Boost applications in hostile environment

254th National Meeting (2017)

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