Experimental Investigation of Foam Stability, Improvement by Nanoparticle and Surfactant in the Presence of Crude Oil

The gas flooding is one of the most common methods for enhancing oil recovery. However, some problems; such as, gas uptake reduces this method’s efficiency. The foam formation reduces the relative permeability of the gas and improves this technique. However, the generated foam by the combination of water and gas does not have enough stability. Thus, surfactant is used for many years. However, the foam stabilized by surfactants is problematic in high temperatures and salt content. The studies have shown that the foam stabilized with Nanoparticles can endure the harsh conditions. Since the presence of oil in the reservoir is inevitable, investigating the effects of crude oil on the foam is of special importance. In this project, the foam generated by Nano-silica and SDS is studied. Then the differences between this foam and the foam generated by only surfactant is discussed. The effect of different kinds of crude oils with different viscosities on foam structure is discussed too. For studying the foam ability and foam stability in the presence of different concentration of these crude oils, the static method called “mixing” is used by the setup that is designed for this job. The results show that nanoparticles do not effect foam ability but increase the foam stability significantly. Regarding the effect of crude oil, it was also determined that the presence of crude oil reduces foam stability and by increasing oil concentration, the stability reduces more. It also turned out that with increasing oil viscosity, foam stability and properties will be improved.