Petroleum Engineering – Drilling
Borzu Asgari pirbalouti
Abstract
Among the different operating parameters that must be carefully controlled during the drilling operation, the penetration of drilling mud into a permeable zone of formations is an essential parameter that can introduce a destructive effect on the productive zone. Concerning this, the current investigation ...
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Among the different operating parameters that must be carefully controlled during the drilling operation, the penetration of drilling mud into a permeable zone of formations is an essential parameter that can introduce a destructive effect on the productive zone. Concerning this, the current investigation concentrates on investigating the effects of different nanoparticles (NPs), namely SiO2, CuO, and ZnO considering their size, type, and concentration (0.2 to 2 wt % for each nanoparticle) on drilling fluid properties, including rheology and high- and low-temperature filtration. Nanoparticles can improve the rheological properties of the mud by changing the friction coefficient favorably. Moreover, the effects of temperature and pressure as two critical thermodynamic parameters are examined. The results show that it is possible to enhance the rheological properties (viscosity) of the drilling mud to a maximum value of about 20% if nanoparticles with a concentration of 2 wt % are added to the drilling fluid. Excessive gel strength will lead to high pump initiation pressure to break circulation after the mud is in a static condition for some time. The results reveal that it is possible to reduce the gelation properties of the drilling mud using low concentrations of nanoparticles. Moreover, the obtained results demonstrate that among the examined nanoparticles, SiO2 and ZnO exhibit a lower filtration rate than CuO. Finally, the effects of temperature and pressure show that regardless of the reductive effect of nanoparticles (reducing the filtration rate from 17.7 to about 10 cm3), increasing the pressure and temperature leads to an increase in the filtration rate (reducing the filtration rate from 67 to 35 cm3). Further, mud rheological properties remain relatively constant.
Petroleum Engineering
Mohsen Mansouri; Mehdi Parhiz; Behrouz Bayati; Yaser Ahmadi
Abstract
One of the critical issues in the oil industry is related to asphaltene precipitation during different stages, and using nanoparticles is known as a standard method for solving this problem. Although nickel oxide and zeolite have been addressed in previous research to solve the asphaltene precipitation ...
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One of the critical issues in the oil industry is related to asphaltene precipitation during different stages, and using nanoparticles is known as a standard method for solving this problem. Although nickel oxide and zeolite have been addressed in previous research to solve the asphaltene precipitation problem, using NiO/Na-ZSm-5 (the primary goal of this study) has not been developed to solve relevant asphaltene precipitation problems. The crystalline structure and morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed with the help of X-ray diffraction spectrometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). The results show that the nanoparticles were well synthesized and preserved their crystalline structure with a diameter of 13.6 nm after synthesis. The EDXS analyses also proved that the sorbent adsorbed an amount of asphaltene. In the next step, asphaltene adsorption experiments were carried out at various concentrations of asphaltene and temperatures, and the effect of different variables, including the initial concentration of asphaltene, temperature, and the ratio of heptane to toluene, on the asphaltene adsorption rate was evaluated. The results indicate that with an increase in the initial asphaltene concentration from 25 to 2000 ppm, the asphaltene adsorption rate in zeolite increases. At concentrations less than 500 ppm, a rise in the temperature reduces the asphaltene adsorption, while at concentrations higher than 500 ppm, raising the temperature from 25 to 55 °C increases asphaltene adsorption capacity on zeolite. Further, more significant adsorption is observed at a heptane-to-toluene ratio of 0.4 with q = 25.17 mg/g. Evaluating the effects of kinetic adsorption molecules of asphaltene on these nanoparticles shows that the adsorption process reaches equilibrium in less than 2 h. The experimental data were adapted according to Lagrangian pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models to determine the kinetic mechanism of this process. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms were evaluated, and the isotherms resulting from the Langmuir isotherm model were of good conformity, indicating that adsorption at the homogenous level occurred with a single-layered coating. In the final step, after evaluating the thermodynamic conditions, the spontaneity of the asphaltene adsorption process was proved.
Fatemeh Amin; Ali Reza Solaimany Nazar
Abstract
The Taguchi design of experiments (DOE) approach is adopted here to evaluate the impact ofeffective factors such as nanoparticles type, nanoparticles to model solution mass ratio, asphaltenestructure, and temperature on asphaltene adsorption equilibrium. Herein, the toluene-asphaltenesolution model is ...
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The Taguchi design of experiments (DOE) approach is adopted here to evaluate the impact ofeffective factors such as nanoparticles type, nanoparticles to model solution mass ratio, asphaltenestructure, and temperature on asphaltene adsorption equilibrium. Herein, the toluene-asphaltenesolution model is applied. Three commercially nanoparticles (SiO2, Al2O3, and TiO2) are used.Asphaltene characterizations are carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It is found that thenanoparticle type and asphaltene structure with a respective influence of 48.5% and 3.11% have themaximum and minimum contribution on the amount of adsorbed asphaltene at the selected levelsrespectively. Aluminum oxide nanoparticle has the maximum and silicon oxide nanoparticle showsthe minimum adsorption. The temperature has no statistical significance. Asphaltenes with higheraromaticity have more tendencies for adsorption on nanoparticles.
Masoumeh Tajmiri; Seyed Mousa Mousavi; Mohammad Reza Ehsani; Emad Roayaei; Ali Emadi
Abstract
Efforts to enhance oil recovery through wettability alteration by nanoparticles have been attracted in recent years. However, many basic questions have been ambiguous up until now. Nanoparticles penetrate into pore volume of porous media, stick on the core surface, and by creating homogeneous water-wet ...
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Efforts to enhance oil recovery through wettability alteration by nanoparticles have been attracted in recent years. However, many basic questions have been ambiguous up until now. Nanoparticles penetrate into pore volume of porous media, stick on the core surface, and by creating homogeneous water-wet area, cause to alter wettability. This work introduces the new concept of adding ZnO nanoparticles by an experimental work on wettability alteration and oil recovery through spontaneous imbibition mechanism. Laboratory tests were conducted in two experimental steps on four cylindrical core samples (three sandstones and one carbonate) taken from a real Iranian heavy oil reservoir in Amott cell. In the first step, the core samples were saturated by crude oil. Next, the core samples were flooded with nanoparticles and saturated by crude oil for about two weeks. Then, the core samples were immersed in distilled water and the amount of recovery was monitored during 30 days for both steps. The experimental results showed that oil recovery for three sandstone cores changed from 20.74, 4.3, and 3.5% of original oil in place (OOIP) in the absence of nanoparticles to 36.2, 17.57, and 20.68% of OOIP when nanoparticles were added respectively. Moreover, for the carbonate core, the recovery changed from zero to 8.89% of OOIP by adding nanoparticles. By the investigation of relative permeability curves, it was found that by adding ZnO nanoparticles, the crossover-point of curves shifted to the right for both sandstone and carbonate cores, which meant wettability was altered to water- wet. This study, for the first time, illustrated the remarkable role of ZnO nanoparticles in wettability alteration toward more water-wet for both sandstone and carbonate cores and enhancing oil recovery.
