Imidazolium based ionic liquid stabilized foams for conformance control: bulk and porous scale investigation

Foams are typically used as a divergent fluid for conformance control in order to divert the fluid flow from a high-permeable zone into a low-permeable zone. Nevertheless, the stability of the foam still remains a challenge due to the presence of antifoaming crude oil and the harsh environment of the reservoir, such as high-temperature, high-salinity, and high-pressure. In this study, we investigated the stability and efficacy of various surfactant generated foams with ionic liquid (IL) additives. Intrinsically, the study is targeted to represent the conditions of Arab-D reservoir formations, which are abundant in Saudi Arabian oilfields. In this, we have screened several parameters that influence foam stability like the type of foamer gases (CO(2), N(2), and air), type of ILs, type of surfactants (nonionic, anionic, cationic, and zwitterionic), concentration, salinity (formation brine, low salinity brine, and seawater brine), temperature, etc. The stability of the generated foams was analyzed in both bulk and porous scale media. The bulk foam study has demonstrated that only a very minor concentration of ILs (50–500 ppm) shows a greater improvement in both the foamability and foam stability. The stability of the foam in the presence of the studied ILs and surfactants increases by more than 50% compared to their neat surfactant solution. A similar response was also witnessed in the dynamic foaming experiments at high-temperature, high-pressure, and high-salinity. The current work also involves the determination of the foam morphology, including structure, size, shape, gas–water interface and the lamellae size for different systems with and without ILs, which helps to understand the stability mechanism of the foams with and without ILs. Confocal and optical microscopic images of the foam structure of various systems reveal that these ILs are successful in reducing the size of bubbles and increasing the lamellae size. It is very clear that the addition of ILs generates the surfactant layered-ILs, and they tend to arrange themselves in the lamellae, and at the liquid–gas interface, thereby decreasing the rate of film drainage at the lamellae and delaying the bubble rupture point. This led to the observed enhanced foam stability. Thus, we would like to conclude that the ILs investigated here improved the foam stability by their adsorption at the foam lamella which further helped in preventing liquid drainage and film thinning.