Cargando…

Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications

In this work, we present various evaluations that are key prior field applications. The workflow combines laboratory approaches to optimize the usage of polymers in combination with alkali to improve project economics. We show that the performance of AP floods can be optimized by making use of lower...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hincapie, Rafael E., Borovina, Ante, Clemens, Torsten, Hoffmann, Eugen, Tahir, Muhammad, Nurmi, Leena, Hanski, Sirkku, Wegner, Jonas, Janczak, Alyssia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9783286/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36559875
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14245508
_version_ 1784857542321504256
author Hincapie, Rafael E.
Borovina, Ante
Clemens, Torsten
Hoffmann, Eugen
Tahir, Muhammad
Nurmi, Leena
Hanski, Sirkku
Wegner, Jonas
Janczak, Alyssia
author_facet Hincapie, Rafael E.
Borovina, Ante
Clemens, Torsten
Hoffmann, Eugen
Tahir, Muhammad
Nurmi, Leena
Hanski, Sirkku
Wegner, Jonas
Janczak, Alyssia
author_sort Hincapie, Rafael E.
collection PubMed
description In this work, we present various evaluations that are key prior field applications. The workflow combines laboratory approaches to optimize the usage of polymers in combination with alkali to improve project economics. We show that the performance of AP floods can be optimized by making use of lower polymer viscosities during injection but increasing polymer viscosities in the reservoir owing to “aging” of the polymers at high pH. Furthermore, AP conditions enable the reduction of polymer retention in the reservoir, decreasing the utility factors (kg polymers injected/incremental bbl. produced). We used aged polymer solutions to mimic the conditions deep in the reservoir and compared the displacement efficiencies and the polymer adsorption of non-aged and aged polymer solutions. The aging experiments showed that polymer hydrolysis increases at high pH, leading to 60% higher viscosity in AP conditions. Micromodel experiments in two-layer chips depicted insights into the displacement, with reproducible recoveries of 80% in the high-permeability zone and 15% in the low-permeability zone. The adsorption for real rock using 8 TH RSB brine was measured to be approximately half of that in the case of Berea: 27 µg/g vs. 48 µg/g, respectively. The IFT values obtained for the AP lead to very low values, reaching 0.006 mN/m, while for the alkali, they reach only 0.44 mN/m. The two-phase experiments confirmed that lower-concentration polymer solutions aged in alkali show the same displacement efficiency as non-aged polymers with higher concentrations. Reducing the polymer concentration leads to a decrease in EqUF by 40%. If alkali–polymer is injected immediately without a prior polymer slug, then the economics are improved by 37% compared with the polymer case. Hence, significant cost savings can be realized capitalizing on the fast aging in the reservoir. Due to the low polymer retention in AP floods, fewer polymers are consumed than in conventional polymer floods, significantly decreasing the utility factor.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9783286
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97832862022-12-24 Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications Hincapie, Rafael E. Borovina, Ante Clemens, Torsten Hoffmann, Eugen Tahir, Muhammad Nurmi, Leena Hanski, Sirkku Wegner, Jonas Janczak, Alyssia Polymers (Basel) Article In this work, we present various evaluations that are key prior field applications. The workflow combines laboratory approaches to optimize the usage of polymers in combination with alkali to improve project economics. We show that the performance of AP floods can be optimized by making use of lower polymer viscosities during injection but increasing polymer viscosities in the reservoir owing to “aging” of the polymers at high pH. Furthermore, AP conditions enable the reduction of polymer retention in the reservoir, decreasing the utility factors (kg polymers injected/incremental bbl. produced). We used aged polymer solutions to mimic the conditions deep in the reservoir and compared the displacement efficiencies and the polymer adsorption of non-aged and aged polymer solutions. The aging experiments showed that polymer hydrolysis increases at high pH, leading to 60% higher viscosity in AP conditions. Micromodel experiments in two-layer chips depicted insights into the displacement, with reproducible recoveries of 80% in the high-permeability zone and 15% in the low-permeability zone. The adsorption for real rock using 8 TH RSB brine was measured to be approximately half of that in the case of Berea: 27 µg/g vs. 48 µg/g, respectively. The IFT values obtained for the AP lead to very low values, reaching 0.006 mN/m, while for the alkali, they reach only 0.44 mN/m. The two-phase experiments confirmed that lower-concentration polymer solutions aged in alkali show the same displacement efficiency as non-aged polymers with higher concentrations. Reducing the polymer concentration leads to a decrease in EqUF by 40%. If alkali–polymer is injected immediately without a prior polymer slug, then the economics are improved by 37% compared with the polymer case. Hence, significant cost savings can be realized capitalizing on the fast aging in the reservoir. Due to the low polymer retention in AP floods, fewer polymers are consumed than in conventional polymer floods, significantly decreasing the utility factor. MDPI 2022-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9783286/ /pubmed/36559875 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14245508 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hincapie, Rafael E.
Borovina, Ante
Clemens, Torsten
Hoffmann, Eugen
Tahir, Muhammad
Nurmi, Leena
Hanski, Sirkku
Wegner, Jonas
Janczak, Alyssia
Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications
title Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications
title_full Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications
title_fullStr Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications
title_full_unstemmed Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications
title_short Optimizing Polymer Costs and Efficiency in Alkali–Polymer Oilfield Applications
title_sort optimizing polymer costs and efficiency in alkali–polymer oilfield applications
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9783286/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36559875
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14245508
work_keys_str_mv AT hincapierafaele optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT borovinaante optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT clemenstorsten optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT hoffmanneugen optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT tahirmuhammad optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT nurmileena optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT hanskisirkku optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT wegnerjonas optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications
AT janczakalyssia optimizingpolymercostsandefficiencyinalkalipolymeroilfieldapplications