Effect of different salinity on low permeability carbonate reservoir recovery using a new green polymeric nanocomposites

ABSTRACT

Nanoparticles usage and altering mechanisms such as wettability alteration (CA) and interfacial tension (IFT) reduction in carbonate reservoirs are common methods used to recover more oil (nanoparticles-assisted enhanced oil recovery (EOR)) from these reservoirs. ZnO/SiO₂/Xanthan as new nanocomposites were introduced at reservoir conditions and different salinity, and results were compared with commercial SiO₂ nanoparticles in this study. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) tests were used for observing morphology and the crystal structure of reservoir. Then, nanocomposites and SiO₂ nanocomposites at 0.05 wt. % were used for seeing IFT and CA parameters at reservoir conditions and different salinity. It was found that nanocomposites have better results during IFT and CA tests compared to SiO₂ nanoparticles, and nanocomposites were selected for surveying the salinity effect in the presence of nanocomposites on low permeability carbonate porous media with imbibition tests. CA (2 SW, 10 SW) decreased from (86 ̊, 80 ̊) to (79 ̊, 78 ̊) and (75 ̊, 74 ̊) in the presence of nanocomposites and SiO₂, respectively, at 60°C and 1800 Psi. Two other important factors that were changed effectively in the presence of nanocomposites were IFT and stability tests. Nanocomposites show stable behavior at different salinity (ZP at 10 SW: 31.37, ZP at 2 SW: −28.00), and IFT decreased in the presence of 2 SW and 10 SW (higher in 2 SW). Finally, recovery factor was increased at both 2 SW and 10 SW in the presence of nanocomposites and reservoir conditions (2SW: 25.1%, 10 SW: 34.1%).

KEYWORDS:

• Nanocomposites
• ZnO/SiO₂/Xanthan
• salinity
• wettability
• carbonate

Nomenclature

BET	=	Brunauer-Emmett-Teller
CA	=	Contact angle (°)
cP	=	Centipoise
EDX	=	Energy-dispersive x-ray
IFT	=	Interfacial tension (mN/m
SARA	=	Saturate (%), aromatic (%), resin (%), and asphaltene (%)
SEM	=	Scanning electron microscopy
XRD	=	X-ray diffraction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.