TY - GEN

T1 - Screening of EOR potential on the pore scale by statistical and topological means

AU - Ott, Holger

AU - Kharrat, Ahmad

AU - Borji, Mostafa

AU - Clemens, Torsten

AU - Arnold, Pit

PY - 2019/8

Y1 - 2019/8

N2 - Chemical EOR processes modify properties of fluid-fluid and rock-fluid interfaces in the pore spacewith the aim of mobilizing additional oil. The initial mobilization takes place on the scale of the individualpore. Therefore, observations on the pore scale provide valuable insights into water-oil displacementmechanisms; the understanding of these mechanisms enables an efficient design of the injection waterchemistry. In this article, we present a first step towards a statistical and topological fingerprint of EORprocesses used to characterize and optimize EOR processes. We use microfluidics to observe changes in theoil distribution in the pore space and the formation of emulsion phases. The oleic phase was analyzed bystatistical and topological means showing a systematic change as a function of alkali concentration. Inparticular, Lorenz diagrams and the normalized Euler characteristic appeared as sensitive to changes in thewater chemistry. It turned out that the displacement processes are influenced by emulsion formation,especially at low and high alkali concentrations. This is implicitly reflected in the statistical and topologicalanalysis, but has not yet been explicitly taken into account.

AB - Chemical EOR processes modify properties of fluid-fluid and rock-fluid interfaces in the pore spacewith the aim of mobilizing additional oil. The initial mobilization takes place on the scale of the individualpore. Therefore, observations on the pore scale provide valuable insights into water-oil displacementmechanisms; the understanding of these mechanisms enables an efficient design of the injection waterchemistry. In this article, we present a first step towards a statistical and topological fingerprint of EORprocesses used to characterize and optimize EOR processes. We use microfluidics to observe changes in theoil distribution in the pore space and the formation of emulsion phases. The oleic phase was analyzed bystatistical and topological means showing a systematic change as a function of alkali concentration. Inparticular, Lorenz diagrams and the normalized Euler characteristic appeared as sensitive to changes in thewater chemistry. It turned out that the displacement processes are influenced by emulsion formation,especially at low and high alkali concentrations. This is implicitly reflected in the statistical and topologicalanalysis, but has not yet been explicitly taken into account.

KW - Fluid Dynamics

KW - Multiphase Flows

UR - http://jgmaas.com/SCA/2019/SCA2019-011.pdf

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - The SOCIETY OF CORE ANALYSTS 2019

ER -