Advances in nanotechnology offer an opportunity to transform oilfield chemicals into brighter, greener, and more sustainable chemicals. For upstream applications, and probably in general, a key aspect in the renovation of conventional chemicals into sustainable ones is reducing chemicals utilization while maximizing treatments efficiency. This work proposes a nanotechnology-based pathway to achieve such optimization for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications.<br/>In this work, we present and illustrate a novel nanoencapsulation method to produce several nanofluids for EOR applications. The nanofluids (NFs) were synthesized using dilute concentrations of a surfactant, co-surfactant, and metal oxide nanoparticles (5, 4, and 0.0004-0.006 wt.%, respectively). The effects of particles coating, size, and concentrations on the NF formulation and stability were evaluated. The produced formulations were incubated at 90 °C and in the presence of high-salinity water to verify the formulations’ colloidal stability in reservoirs conditions. Several characterization protocols were used to assess the formulations’ functionality, including cryo-transmission electron-microscopy(cryo-TEM), spinning drop tensiometery, and spontaneous ambition tests. Interestingly, the produced nanofluids have exhibited long-term stability over a year at 90 °C and in the presence of high salinity water (65,000 ppm). Cryo-Tem images confirmed the encapsulation of nanoparticles into the nano-capsules. The interfacial tension (IFT) results indicated a decrease in the IFT values by several orders of magnitude (from ~ 25 mN/m down to ~ 0.002 mN/m), confirming the suitability of the produced NFs for subsurface EOR applications. Moreover, the spontaneous imbibition results showed a 70% recovery. Further studies are ongoing to better understand the NF formulation recovery mechanisms and the contributions of the various components (i.e. surfactant, cosurfactant, and the encapsulated nanoparticles) as well as the type of synergy.

Nanotechnology application to synthesize sustainable oilfield chemicals

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.