Insights into the flow behaviour of the pre-generated polymer enhanced foam in heterogeneous porous media during tertiary oil recovery: Effect of gravitational forces

Over the past few decades, foam flooding has emerged as a decent option for diverting flow from high permeable layers toward dense layers. Here, a visualization study of the conventional foam and polymer enhanced foam (PEF) behavior in the heterogeneous porous media is presented and the PEF performance in horizontal and vertical injection modes is evaluated. A heterogeneous porous medium made of transparent plexiglass packed with two different layers of glass beads to attain a heterogeneity ratio of 4:1 was used in various flooding experiments. The results of dynamic tests in the absence of oil showed that the presence of polymer in the foaming solution increases the flow resistance of foam in the porous medium and prevents foam fingering in the low permeable layers. Horizontal oil displacement experiments showed that PEF flooding has an excellent plugging capacity and oil recovery increased by 72.5% of water flooded residual oil (S-or*), which was 19.1% more than that of conventional foam injection. Comparison between vertical and horizontal PEF flooding proved that due to the positive gravity effect, the performance of PEF in vertical mode was better than that in horizontal mode, and the recovery factor increased to 78.3% water-flooded residual oil.

Automated summary

Foam flooding is a viable option for diverting flow in heterogeneous porous media. This study investigates the behavior of conventional foam and polymer enhanced foam (PEF) and evaluates PEF performance in horizontal and vertical injection modes. The results show that PEF has a higher flow resistance and better plugging capacity compared to conventional foam. Additionally, vertical PEF flooding performs better due to the positive gravity effect.