Experimental investigation of immiscible supercritical carbon dioxide foam rheology for improved oil recovery

• Published in: Journal of earth science (Wuhan, China) China), 2017-10, Vol.28 (5), p.835-841
• Main Authors: Ahmed, Shehzad, Elraies, Khaled Abdalla, Forooozesh, Jalal, Bt Mohd Shafian, Siti Rohaida, Hashmet, Muhammad Rehan, Hsia, Ivy Chai Ching, Almansour, Abdullah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biogeosciences; Carbon dioxide; Carbon monoxide; Coinjection; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Foams; Geochemistry; Geology; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; High pressure; High temperature; Lamella; Oil recovery; Photosystem I; Rheological properties; Rheology; Shear thinning (liquids); Surfactants; Viscosity
• ISSN: 1674-487X; 1867-111X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12583-017-0803-z

This paper presents the rheological behaviour of supercritical CO 2 (sCO 2 ) foam at reservoir conditions of 1 500 psi and 80 °C. Different commercial surfactants were screened and utilized in order to generate a fairly stable CO 2 foam. Mixed surfactant system was also introduced to generate strong foam. Foam rheology was studied for some specific foam qualities using a high pressure high temperature (HPHT) foam loop rheometer. A typical shear thinning behaviour of the foam was observed and a significant increase in the foam viscosity was noticed with the increase of foam quality until 85%. A desired high apparent viscosity with coarse texture was found at 85% foam quality. Foam visualization above 85% showed an unstable foam due to extremely thin lamella which collapsed and totally disappeared in the loop rheometer. Below 52%, a non-homogenous and unstable foam was found having low viscosity with some liquid accumulation at the bottom of the circulation loop. This research has demonstrated rheology of sCO 2 foams at different qualities at HPHT to obtain optimal foam quality region for immiscible CO 2 foam co-injection process.