Experimental study of temperature and permeability effect on polymer flooding

Research subject:

 Investigation of the effect of temperature on the polymer flooding performance at the pore scale, leads to an understanding of the behavior of the polymer solution in porous media with varying permeability.

Research approach:

 In this study, the effect of temperature on flooding of polyacrylamide polymer on enhanced oil recovery in two homogeneous micromodels at 25 and 70 °C was investigated. The polymer solution and DW were injected at the injection rate of 1 μl/min up to 1 PV into the micromodel and the amount of produced oil and the movement of the injected fluid in the porous medium were analyzed. In addition, polymer rheology and injected fluid viscosity were measured for better analysis of results. Then the results were compared with flooding of distilled water as the control test.

Examining the flood results, it was found that on the one hand, the temperature factor helped to increase oil recovery by reducing the viscosity of the oil. On the other hand, it has reduced the role of injected fluid viscosity in oil extraction by reducing the viscosity of the polymer. The results showed that the phenomenon of fingering decreases in the case of polymer injection, and the rate of improvement of oil recovery during polymer and water flooding in both micromodels increases with increasing temperature. Also, the rate of improvement of oil recovery during polymer flooding in the A micromodel increased from about 43% at ambient temperature to more than 51% and in the B micromodel from about 51% to more than 60% at 70 °C. In fact, it can be said that the flow pattern and stability of the polymer solution front and consequently the ultimate oil recovery are significantly affected by the morphology of the pores, the shape and the throats pores.