In the petroleum industry, oil recovery is typically conducted via injecting sea water deep into reservoirs in the so-called flooding process to facilitate the oil flow up the wellbore as a multiphase oil-water stream. Abundant ions in sea water can lead to scaling. Scaling, the formation of sparingly soluble salts such as calcium carbonate, occurs in pipeline network or oil well, causing serious operational damage, safety issues, and economical loss. Despite the maturity of this process, there is still a significant gap in understanding the effects of emulsion properties on the scaling in multiphase system. Here, we formulate a stable water-in-oil emulsion using a multi-factorial design of experiments (DOE) in combination with a microfluidic-based multiphase platform. The stable water-in-oil system is used to uncover the effects of emulsion composition on calcium carbonate scaling kinetics. These fundamental studies on the calcium carbonate scale formation in oil-water emulsions may provide insights to engineer anti-scaling materials for multiphase systems.

Fundamental studies on calcium carbonate scale formation in oil-water emulsions

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ACS Fall 2022

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