Magnetic resonance imaging study on near miscible supercritical CO2 flooding in porous media

• Published in: Physics of fluids (1994) 2013-05, Vol.25 (5)
• Main Authors: Song, Yongchen, Zhu, Ningjun, Zhao, Yuechao, Liu, Yu, Jiang, Lanlan, Wang, Tonglei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1070-6631; 1089-7666
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4803663

CO2 flooding is one of the most popular secondary or tertiary recoveries for oil production. It is also significant for studying the mechanisms of the two-phase and multiphase flow in porous media. In this study, an experimental study was carried out by using magnetic resonance imaging technique to examine the detailed effects of pressure and rates on CO2/decane flow in a bead-pack porous media. The displacing processes were conducted under various pressures in a region near the minimum miscibility pressure (the system tuned from immiscible to miscible as pressure is increasing in this region) and the temperature of 37.8 °C at several CO2 injection volumetric rates of 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15 ml/min (or linear rates of 3.77, 7.54, and 11.3 ft/day). The evolution of the distribution of decane and the characteristics of the two phase flow were investigated and analyzed by considering the pressure and rate. The area and velocity of the transition zone between the two phases were calculated and analyzed to quantify mixing. The area of transition zone decreased with pressure at near miscible region and a certain injection rate and the velocity of the transition zone was always less than the “volumetric velocity” due to mutual solution and diffusion of the two phases. Therefore, these experimental results give the fundamental understanding of tertiary recovery processes at near miscible condition.