Comparative Study of Biopolymer Flooding: A Core Flooding and Numerical Reservoir Simulator Validation Analysis
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Hindawi
Abstract
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Polymers increase the macroscopic efficiency of the flooding process and increase crude oil recovery. The viscosity of 3 polymers
xanthan, guar, and Arabic gums is measured in the lab and experimented with as EOR options. Xanthan and guar gum polymers
are measured in weight percentages of 0.1, 0.2, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, and 1, while gum Arabic is measured in 0.4, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, and 15 weight
percentages. The viscosity experiments showed that gum Arabic had the lowest viscosity at 15% wt. Xanthan gum and guar gum
had significantly higher viscosities than gum Arabic at corresponding weight percentages. At the same weight of 0.5%, xanthan,
guar, and Arabic gums recorded a 63%, 53%, and 46% oil recovery, respectively. Due to the limitations surrounding core flooding
experiments such as human error, equipment failure, and measurement of oil recoveries, it is necessary to validate the results
obtained with other methods such as reservoir simulation. A reservoir model is built (using Eclipse) and incorporated with
polymer and viscosity functions measured in the lab to validate results from the core flooding experiments. Peak oil recovery
of 9.96%, 9.95%, and 9.90% was recorded for xanthan, guar, and Arabic gum, respectively, at a weight percentage of 0.5%
weight. Also, increasing the wt% of injected polymers increases oil recovery. Results also indicate that the trend of oil
recoveries during core flooding follows that observed during reservoir simulation and oil production increased as percentage
weight increased for all the polymer cases considered.
Keywords
T Technology (General), TC Hydraulic engineering. Ocean engineering, TP Chemical technology