Experimental Evaluation of a Polymer Foam Agent on the Foam Stability, Concern to Surfactant, Nanoparticle, and Salinity

Summary In recent years, rising oil demand has led to a strong need to improve enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. One of the most common methods for EOR in the oil industry is gas injection. When gas is injected into the reservoir, because of the low density of the gas relative to the oil and the undesirable gas mobility ratio, problems such as gas uptakes and the injected gas flow channeling arise, thus reducing the efficiency of oil production. Foam can improve mobility and increase EOR by reducing gas permeability. One of the most important properties of the foam is stability which affects the EOR. In recent years, many studies have been conducted on the use of nanoparticles (NPs) and polymers as stabilizers, but the use of stabilizers that have the ability to produce foam has been less studied. The main objective of this work is an experimental study of foam stability by the dynamic method of CO2 gas injection and static method of “Ross-Miles” in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and nanosilica in combination with a foaming polymer such as hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC). The aim of this study was to compare the effect of a polymer that has the ability to produce foam relative to the stabilizer of NP on the foam stability. The zeta potential and the structure of the foam bubbles were measured to better understand the parameters affecting the foam stability. Experimental outcomes of this work show that the HEC polymer, despite being a foaming agent, has less effect on the foam stability than the nanosilica. That is, under similar conditions, SDS-NP based foams are more stable than SDS-HEC based foams. In addition, the composition of the SDS-NP-HEC foam system shows weaker foam performance compared to the case of SDS-NP and SDS-HEC dispersions. Also, salinity has an optimal concentration in which foam concentration has the best performance and stability; in this study, the optimal NaCl salt concentration is 2 wt% NaCl.