Application of Polymer and Nanomaterials for Improving Heavy Oil Recovery

Aliabadian, Ehsan

Application of Polymer and Nanomaterials for Improving Heavy Oil Recovery

dc.contributor.advisor	Sundararaj, Uttandaraman
dc.contributor.advisor	Chen, Zhangxin
dc.contributor.author	Aliabadian, Ehsan
dc.contributor.committeemember	Maini, B. B.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Dong, Mingzhe
dc.contributor.committeemember	Lines, Larry R.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Mohanty, Kishore K.
dc.date	2019-11
dc.date.accessioned	2019-09-12T20:48:44Z
dc.date.available	2019-09-12T20:48:44Z
dc.date.issued	2019-09-10
dc.description.abstract	Booming population growth and economic activity have contributed significantly to an increased demand for energy in the last few decades, specifically in Canada. A major source of energy is oil extracted from underground petroleum reservoirs. Utilizing current technology and equipment, only a small portion of oil can be produced and recovered. Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), used as a common technique to produce heavy oil in Canada (specifically in oil sands reservoirs), requires a lot of energy and negatively impacts the environment. Using environmentally friendly and cost-effective techniques instead of or combined with SAGD improves the extraction of oil from Canadian oil reservoirs. Reservoir pressure, which is a driving force for pushing oil toward production wells, reduces drastically in the early stages of oil production from underground resources. This leads to a significant decrease in oil production rate. To solve this problem, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods inject water, gas, or chemical solutions to maintain reservoir pressure. When water is injected (water flooding) into heavy oil reservoirs, it cannot push the viscous oil smoothly because of water’s lower viscosity as compared to oil. As a result, injected water tends to bypass the pores containing trapped oil and the flooding becomes inefficient. To overcome this problem, one method adds polymers to the injected water. The addition of polymers leads to a more uniform flooding by increasing the viscosity of the injected fluid. Unfortunately, this approach suffers seriously from degradation of polymers at high temperatures and precipitation of polymers due to interaction with ions like sodium and calcium in brine. To solve these problems, the addition of nanomaterials to a polymer solution is highly recommended. The main focus of this PhD dissertation is to evaluate the effect of surface chemistry and geometry of nanomaterial on creation of a network with large polymer molecules. In addition, to mimic the large deformations in converging and diverging pores in porous media, linear and nonlinear rheology were employed to characterize the mechanical and flow behaviors of these hybrid dispersions. Sandpacks were used as the porous media to simulate oil reservoirs. Different hybrid dispersions were injected into sandpacks and the yield of recovered oil was reported. Results of this work can pave the way for use of polymer/nanomaterial solutions for heavy oil recovery. This study also demonstrated that large deformation oscillatory shear tests can be employed to distinguish flow behavior of hybrid systems. It was also shown that interaction between polymer and nanomaterial affects network structure and, consequently, oil recovery. Furthermore, size of nanomaterial compared to pore size distribution of porous media is a significant parameter that should be considered. The outcomes of this study could be helpful in improving heavy oil recovery in thin oil formations such as the Cardium, Montney, and Ostracod formations. These formations are too thin to utilize processes like steam-assisted gravity drainage and solvent vapor extraction, making this technique significant for increasing oil recovery in Canadian heavy oil reservoirs.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Aliabadian, E. (2019). Application of Polymer and Nanomaterials for Improving Heavy Oil Recovery (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/36983
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110911
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher.faculty	Schulich School of Engineering	en_US
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.	en_US
dc.subject	Enhancd Oil Recovery (EOR)	en_US
dc.subject	Linear and Non-linear Rheology	en_US
dc.subject	Flow in Porous Media	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Engineering--Chemical	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Engineering--Petroleum	en_US
dc.title	Application of Polymer and Nanomaterials for Improving Heavy Oil Recovery	en_US
dc.type	doctoral thesis	en_US
thesis.degree.discipline	Engineering – Chemical & Petroleum	en_US
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary	en_US
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)	en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true	en_US