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Schematic of the experimental setup to measure the thermodynamic properties of the aqueous NB fluid. The background image for bubbled water was retrieved from freepik.com.
Source publication
The amount of gaseous species in water or brine can be greatly enhanced in the form of nanobubble (NB) dispersion. Aqueous NB dispersion has vast industrial applications, potentially in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration to control the mobility of gaseous species and the geochemistry associated with CO2 dissolution....
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... 5. Schematic of the experimental setup used to generate aqueous NB fluid. Figure 6 shows a schematic for the experiment to measure the thermodynamic properties of aqueous NB fluid. Following the procedure given previously, the aqueous NB fluid sample was transferred from the receiver accumulator into a sapphire cell at pressure P1. ...
Context 2
... were measured at equilibrium. 2. The water mass measured in Step 3 ( Figure 6) was at equilibrium with the N2 gas cap in the sapphire cell. 3. The mass of water left in the sapphire cell in the form of droplets on the interior was negligible in comparison to the mass measured mw3. 4. The system was closed in the depressurizing process from P2 to P3. ...
Citations
... Previous studies and applications of aqueous NB dispersion are limited to low-pressure open systems. Recently, Wang et al. (2023) and Achour et al. (2024) presented experimental data of aqueous NB dispersion with CO 2 and nitrogen at high pressures relevant to subsurface applications [up to 21 MPa in Wang et al. (2023) and up to 28 MPa in Achour et al. (2024)]. Their experimental data showed that the gas concentration in aqueous NB fluid increased substantially with pressure. ...
... Previous studies and applications of aqueous NB dispersion are limited to low-pressure open systems. Recently, Wang et al. (2023) and Achour et al. (2024) presented experimental data of aqueous NB dispersion with CO 2 and nitrogen at high pressures relevant to subsurface applications [up to 21 MPa in Wang et al. (2023) and up to 28 MPa in Achour et al. (2024)]. Their experimental data showed that the gas concentration in aqueous NB fluid increased substantially with pressure. ...
... That is, aqueous NB fluid may find more promising applications at high pressures. Achour et al. (2024) presented a thermodynamic model for aqueous NB fluid using minimization of the Helmholtz free energy with the GERG-2008 equation of state. They modeled aqueous NB fluid as two phases with a cluster of NBs and the external aqueous phase that is supersaturated by the gaseous species. ...
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has been studied for high-salinity high-temperature (HSHT) carbonate reservoirs, but their thermodynamic conditions, brine chemistry, and petrophysical properties tend to pose various technical challenges for both gas- and chemical-based EOR. This paper presents an experimental study of aqueous solution of 3-pentanone for EOR in a carbonate reservoir with a brine salinity of 224,358 ppm at a reservoir temperature of 99°C. The short dialkyl ketone was previously studied as a sole additive to injection brine for rapid wettability alteration in oil-wet carbonate rocks without affecting the water/oil interfacial tension; however, it had not been tested under HSHT conditions. The main objective of this research was to investigate the impact of 3-pentanone on convective oil displacement in oil-wet carbonate rocks under HSHT conditions.
First, aqueous stability was confirmed for mixtures of 3-pentanone and two brines: formation brine (FB) with a salinity of 224,358 ppm and injection brine (IB) with a salinity of 54,471 ppm at reservoir temperature. Quantitative proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) analysis was used to determine the solubility of 3-pentanone in FB and IB. Spontaneous and forced imbibition experiments were conducted to assess imbibition enhancement in oil-aged Texas Cream carbonate cores by a solution of 3-pentanone in IB (3pIB) and compared with IB. Afterward, corefloods with oil-aged carbonate cores were performed by injecting IB followed by 3pIB as a tertiary flooding scenario and also by injecting only 3pIB as a secondary flooding scenario. Analysis of the spontaneous imbibition and coreflooding results was assisted by history-matched numerical models where capillary pressure and relative permeability curves were obtained. These data were further used to infer wettability alteration potential of 3-pentanone solution. Because of the markedly different solubilities of 3-pentanone in injection brine (1.1 wt%), formation brine (0.3 wt%), and oil (first-contact miscible), material balance analysis of corefloods was performed to understand the transport of 3-pentanone through varying salinities from injection brine (54,471 ppm) and resident brine (224,358 ppm) while being mixed with in-situ oil.
Spontaneous and forced imbibition tests confirmed the wettability alteration of oil-aged carbonate rocks by 1.1-wt% 3pIB. This was further supported by the slope analysis of temporal recovery data as well as analyzing history-matched capillary pressure and relative permeability data. Coreflooding results showed increased oil production rate and reduced residual oil saturation by 3pIB. Relative permeability data, through Lak and modified Lak wettability indices, also indicated a wettability alteration toward more water-wetness by 3-pentanone solution.
... Previous studies and applications of aqueous NB dispersion are limited to low-pressure open systems. Recently, Wang et al. (2023) and Achour et al. (2024) presented experimental data of aqueous NB dispersion with CO2 and nitrogen at high pressures relevant to subsurface applications [up to 21 MPa in Wang et al. (2023) and up to 28 MPa in Achour et al. (2024)]. Their experimental data showed that the gas concentration in aqueous NB fluid increased substantially with pressure. ...
... Previous studies and applications of aqueous NB dispersion are limited to low-pressure open systems. Recently, Wang et al. (2023) and Achour et al. (2024) presented experimental data of aqueous NB dispersion with CO2 and nitrogen at high pressures relevant to subsurface applications [up to 21 MPa in Wang et al. (2023) and up to 28 MPa in Achour et al. (2024)]. Their experimental data showed that the gas concentration in aqueous NB fluid increased substantially with pressure. ...
... That is, aqueous NB fluid may find more promising applications at high pressures. Achour et al. (2024) presented a thermodynamic model for aqueous NB fluid using minimization of the Helmholtz free energy with the GERG-2008 equation of state. They modeled aqueous NB fluid as two phases with a cluster of NBs and the external aqueous phase that is supersaturated by the gaseous species. ...
This paper presents an experimental study of aqueous nanobubble dispersion of carbon dioxide (CO2-NB) for enhanced oil recovery. CO2-NB was compared with brine and slightly supersaturated carbonated water (eCW) in corefloods with Berea sandstone cores and dead oil at room temperature. CO2-NB was also compared with a mixture of CO2 and brine with no NB in high-pressure high-temperature huff-n-puff experiments with live oil-saturated tight Kentucky sandstone cores using three different fracture-matrix configurations.
Coreflooding results showed that the displacement of oil by CO2-NB yielded a delayed breakthrough, in which the oil recovery factor at breakthrough (RFBT) was 9.1% original-oil-in-place (OOIP) greater than RFBT in the brine case. The displacement of oil by eCW did not show such an increase in RFBT, but showed a long-term gradual increase in oil recovery after the breakthrough. The increased RFBT by CO2-NB can be attributed to the nucleation of a CO2-rich phase near the displacement fronts, where the metastable aqueous phase releases CO2 to the oleic phase while the nanobubbles of CO2 with capillary pressure release CO2 to the surrounding aqueous phase. That is, the partially miscible displacement of dead oil by the in-situ generated CO2-rich phase could have enhanced RFBT by CO2-NB in comparison to the immiscible oil displacement by water in the brine case. Huff-n-puff experimental results showed a systematic increase in oil recovery by using CO2-NB in comparison to CO2-brine (with no NB). In the CO2-NB case, the annular, artificial, and combination fractures had oil recoveries of 34%, 36%, and 39% OOIP, respectively. In the CO2-brine case, they were 245, 22%, and 28% OOIP, respectively.
