Coreflood on a chip: Core-scale micromodels for subsurface applications

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) 2020-12, Vol.281 (C), p.118716, Article 118716
• Main Authors: Mejia, Lucas, Zhu, Peixi, Hyman, Jeffrey D., Mohanty, Kishore K., Balhoff, Matthew T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aqueous solutions; Computational fluid dynamics; Computed tomography; Cores; Displacement; Enhanced oil recovery; EOR; Fluid flow; Fluid injection; Glycerol; Inspection; Micromodel; Oil; Oil-bank; Optical microscopes; Permeability; Porosity; Surfactant; Viscosity; Viscosity ratio
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.118716

•Novel fabrication methods are combined to make a core-scale micromodel for EOR.•Long micromodels capture core-scale physics such as the formation of oil banks.•Increasing viscosity of displacing phase in long micromodels increases the amount of oil recovered at breakthrough. Fluid injection experiments in rocks, commonly referred to as corefloods, are widely used to study and understand fluid flow in the subsurface. However, visual inspection of flow in cores requires computed tomography machines which may not be widely accessible. We introduce a novel micromodel that is as long as a typical core (40 cm), has adjustable pore structure, and includes 2.5D pore throats that can be used to conduct fluid displacements analogous to those in cores. Flow can be visualized inexpensively in the micromodel with an optical microscope. We performed standard coreflood tests in our micromodel including a tracer test and a steady state permeability test. We also conducted multiphase displacements by injecting aqueous solutions at varying glycerol concentrations to displace oil from the micromodel and observed the effect of the viscosity ratio on macro-scale recovery efficiency. When the injected aqueous solution was less viscous than the resident oil, it fingered through the oil. Fingering was not observed in the cases where the injected glycerol solution was more viscous than the oil. Moreover, as the viscosity of the injected glycerol solution increased, oil was recovered more rapidly. Additionally, we performed surfactant and glycerol floods in short (2.4 cm) and long (40 cm) micromodels that show long chips capture scale dependent physics, such as oil banking, that small chips do not capture. The novel micromodel shows promise as a screening tool for chemical EOR because it captures phase banks that are desirable in corefloods.