Journal
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Volume 10, Issue 3, Pages 919-931Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s13202-019-00782-7
Keywords
Asphaltene stability; Carbon dioxide injection; Unconventional shale oil reservoir
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Carbon dioxide (CO2) injection is one of the most applied enhanced oil recovery methods in the hydrocarbon industry, since it has the potential to increase oil recovery significantly and can help reduce greenhouse gases through carbon storage in hydrocarbon reservoirs. Carbon dioxide injection has a severe drawback, however, since it induces asphaltene precipitation by disrupting the asphaltene stability in crude oil that bears even the slightest asphaltene concentration. This can result in severe operational problems, such as reservoir pore plugging and wellbore plugging. This research investigates some of the main factors that impact asphaltene stability in crude oil during CO2 injection. Initially, asphaltene precipitation, flocculation, and deposition were tested using visual tests without CO2 in order to evaluate the effect of oil viscosity and temperature on asphaltene stability and content in the crude oil. The results obtained from the visualization experiments were correlated to the Yen-Mullins asphaltene model and were used to select the proper chemical to alter the oil's viscosity without strongly affecting asphaltene stability. After performing the visual asphaltene tests, a specially designed filtration vessel was used to perform the oil filtration experiments using filter membranes with a micron and nanometer pore size. The effect of varying CO2 injection pressure, oil viscosity, filter membrane pore size, and filter membrane thickness on asphaltene stability in crude oil was investigated. The results were then correlated with the Yen-Mullins asphaltene model to characterize the asphaltene size within the oil as well. Results showed that as the oil viscosity increased, the asphaltene concentration in the oil also increased. Also, the asphaltene concentration and filter cake thickness increased with the decrease in filter membrane pore size, since the asphaltene particles either plugged up the smaller pores, or the asphaltene nanoaggregates were larger than the pore sizes, and thus the majority of them could not pass. This research studies asphaltene instability in crude oil during CO2 injection in different pore sizes, and correlates the results to the principle of the Yen-Mullins model for asphaltenes. The results from this research can help emphasize the factors that will impact asphaltene stability during CO2 injection in different pore sizes in order to help reduce asphaltene-related problems that arise during CO2 injection in hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available