Relation Between Chemical Composition of a Green Nanofluid and Its Foam Film Stabilization For Robust Foam Injection EOR

Abstract

Foams were introduced to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) for the purpose of improving sweep efficiency via mitigating gas breakthrough. In prior works, well-defined nanocellulose-based nanofluids, which can well stabilize foam film as a green alternative to reduce the environmental impact, were successfully prepared in our group. However, due to the costly manufacturing process, its field scale application is restricted. In order to further simply the manufacturing process and minimize the cost, in this study, we proposed another family of functional nanocellulose, in which lignin fraction was remained as well as carboxyl groups. The primary objective of the present work is to investigate the synergism between the lignin-nanocellulose (L-NC) and surfactant in foam film stabilization. Particular attention was placed on the relation between the chemical composition of L-NC and its stabilizing effect. Direct measurements of foamability, drainage half-time, foam morphology, foam decay, etc., were performed. The results showed that after the contents of lignin and carboxyl group were well tailored, the resultant L-NC can significantly improve the stability of foam either in the absence or presence of crude oil. The flooding dynamics observed in core plugs indicated that the L-NC stabilized foams could properly migrate in porous media and generated larger flow resistance accross the cores than surfactant-only foam.