Review of the application of environmentally responsive gels in drilling and oil recovery engineering: Synthetic materials, mechanism, and application prospect

• Published in: Journal of petroleum science & engineering 2022-08, Vol.215, p.110581, Article 110581
• Main Authors: Yang, Jing-bin, Sun, Jin-sheng, Bai, Ying-rui, Lv, Kai-he, Wang, Zhi-yuan, Xu, Cheng-yuan, Dai, Li-yao, Wang, Ren
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Application prospect; Drilling engineering; Enhanced oil recovery; Environmentally responsive gel; Synthetic mechanism
• ISSN: 0920-4105; 1873-4715
• DOI: 10.1016/j.petrol.2022.110581

In recent years, environmentally responsive gel has gradually become the focus of attention in the oilfield, and it is also a new research direction in the field of lost circulation control and oil recovery in oilfields. It is favored because it is sensitive and responsive to the environment. At present, the research and application of environmentally responsive gels in China and abroad are mainly concentrated in the fields of agriculture, biomedical science, environmental engineering, tissue engineering and so on, but it is rarely used in the field of lost circulation control and enhanced oil recovery. Based on this, this paper summarizes the research status and application of environmentally responsive gel in the field of oil and gas drilling and production engineering, and mainly summarizes the latest research progress of temperature-sensitive gel, salt-sensitive gel and acid-base sensitive gel. In particular, its synthesis methods, performance characteristics and action mechanism are analyzed and summarized, and the application research progress of environmentally responsive gel in oil and gas drilling and production are introduced in detail. Meanwhile, combined with the synthesis method and action mechanism of environmentally responsive gel, this paper expounds the application prospect of environmentally responsive gel in the field of oil and gas drilling and production, and then puts forward the future development direction of environmentally responsive gel in the field of oil and gas drilling and production engineering. Therefore, the development of “hybrid” environmentally responsive gel with double (multiple) response function suitable for oil and gas drilling and production will become an important development direction in the field of oil and gas drilling and production with the deepening of the research on environmentally responsive gel materials. •The latest research progress of environmentally responsive gel is summarized.•The synthesis method and action mechanism of environmental response gel are described.•The application prospect of environmental responsive gel in drilling engineering is prospected.