Guar Gum-Based Hydrogels as Potent Green Polymers for Enhanced Oil Recovery in High-Salinity Reservoirs

Improving oil production for high-salinity reservoirs using polymer flooding is challenging due to chemical and mechanical degradations. This study developed two biodegradable biopolymers based on graft copolymerization of guar gum (GG) with two different co-monomers, which are acrylamide (Am) and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS), and cross-linked by N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) to face these challenges. The newly synthesized guar gum-based hydrogels, GG-g-poly(Am-AMPS) (GH) and GG-g-poly(Am-AMPS)/Biochar (GBH composite), were evaluated as potential candidates for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) under high-salinity conditions. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the synthesized hydrogels were investigated, and their rheological properties were measured at room temperature. Both GH and GHB display a shear-thinning performance. In polymer flooding experiments, guar gum hydrogel (GH) and guar gum/biochar composite hydrogel (GHB) showed a remarkable influence on delaying the water breakthrough and proved to be effective biopolymers for enhanced oil recovery in high-salinity reservoirs. At the optimum concentration of 5 g/L, GH flooding achieved maximum oil recoveries of 70.53 and 72.11% in secondary and tertiary recovery processes, respectively. Meanwhile, the waterflooding process achieved an ultimate oil recovery of 58.42%. GHB flooding at optimum concentration, 2 g/L, increased the amount of oil recovery by 8.95% in tertiary recovery compared to waterflooding. Furthermore, GH (5 g/L) and GHB (2 g/L) slightly enhanced the rock water wettability as confirmed by contact angle measurements for GH and the relative permeability saturation curves for GH and GHB.