Hydrophobically modified melamine-formaldehyde sponge used for conformance control and water shutoff during oil production

Polymer or polymer gels have been widely used to control excessive water during oil production by homogenizing injection profile and reducing water cut in the produced fluids. However, the gels used are generally unable to selectively minimize water production, and face the challenge of syneresis of gels under high temperature and high salinity environment. In this work, melamine-formaldehyde sponge was modified with AlCl3 solution, rendering a transition from hydrophilic to hydrophobic state with a water contact angle of 130 degrees on the surface of the modified product. Filtration results show that mineral oil and water can be selectively separated with the hydrophobically modified sponge powders. Simulated water shutoff experiments demonstrated the blockage efficiency against water was 30% higher than that against oil, and the oil production was increased 7.4% after blocking. The parallel profile control tests confirmed that the fraction flow of high permeable channel decreased about 75%, accompanied with 60% rise of oil recovery factor. These results indicated that such hydrophobic materials can significantly reduce excessive water production, and this work provided a new idea to offer a low-cost hydrophobic material for conformance control and water shutoff during oil production.

Automated summary

Hydrophobic materials, such as the modified sponge powders in this study, can selectively separate mineral oil and water, increase oil recovery by blocking high permeable channels, and significantly reduce excessive water production during oil production processes.