Flow visualization of silica nanofluid injection for enhanced oil recovery in a micromodel based on wellsorted grain-size porous media

Abstract

Currently, coreflood analysis is considered as the conventional laboratory test to understand fluid flow through porous media. However, this technique possesses disadvantages regarding time-consuming experiments and fluid movement visualization. In this context, microfluidics is emerging as a trend in reservoir engineering, providing fast-paced solutions for old-fashioned problems. Microfluidic chips, or micromodels, are able to directly observe a wide range of transport phenomena in pore-scale and assist in fluid screening for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). In this study, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micromodels were fabricated and applied in a nano-EOR technique with silica nanofluids. Several pore-networks were computationally generated based on statistical parameters of real rocks. An experimental setup was mounted to provide a platform for flow visualization and a fluid injection method was applied similarly to field applications. By digital processing of captured images, oil recovery factors (RF) were calculated during the experiments. Finally, silica nanofluid injection showed additional RFs of 12% as tertiary recovery and 23% as secondary recovery.