Foam flow in porous media is important for many industrial operations such as enhanced oil recovery, remediation of contaminated aquifers and CO2 sequestration. The application of foam in these processes is due to its unique ability to reduce gas mobility and to divert gas to low permeability zones in porous media which otherwise would not be reached. To achieve optimum success with foam as a displacing fluid in oil recovery and remediation operations, it is essential to understand how different parameters influence foam flow in porous media. In this thesis, a variety of experimental techniques were used to study foam stability, foam rheology as well as the dynamics and patterns of oil displacement by foam under different boundary conditions such as surfactant formulation, oil type, foam quality (gas fraction) and porous media geometry. Bulk scale studies showed that foam stability was surfactant and oil dependant such that decreasing oil carbon number and viscosity decreased the stability of foam. However, no meaningful correlation was found between foam stability at bulk scale and the efficiency of oil displacement in porous media for the various surfactants studied in this work. Additionally, our results show that foams consisting of smaller bubbles do not necessarily correspond to higher apparent viscosity as the foam quality is also crucial. For the same foam quality decreasing bubble size resulted in higher apparent viscosity. Although in theory a higher apparent viscosity (i.e. higher foam quality) would be ideal for displacement purposes, increasing foam quality resulted in less stable foam in porous media due to formation of thin films which were less stable in the presence of oil. The effect of pore geometry on foam generation and oil displacement has also been investigated. Our findings provide new insights about the physics and complex dynamics of foam flow in porous media.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:01:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoselisseSCS_DISSERT_partes autorizadas.pdf: 100593 bytes, checksum: 6e0be4155f59bdd61810503b91014cbc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-11-10 / The objective of this study was to evaluate the displacement of petroleum/diesel solutions, at different concentrations, observing the effect of ultrasonic vibrations in fluids present in porous media to obtain an increase in oil production. The bubbles produced by ultrasound implode asymmetrically in the rock, generating liquid jets with high speed, displacing the oil present in porous media. The oil/diesel solutions were prepared with concentrations ranging from 20 g/L to 720 g/L in oil in relation to diesel and its viscosities were obtained in a Brookfield Rheometer RS2000, with temperature ranging from 25 to 55 ?C. After, calculations were performed to obtain the activation energy data for oil/diesel solutions. For oil recovery experiments, cylindrical samples of porous rock (core samples), with resin around the perimeter and its two circular bases free to allow the passage of fluids, were first saturated with 2% KCl solution and after with oil solutions. The results of oil extraction were satisfactory for all studied solutions, being obtained up to 68% partial displacement with saline solution injection. The ultrasound system was used after saline injection, increasing oil displacement, with oil extractions ranging from 63% to 79%. During the experiments, it was observed the warming of core samples, helping to reduce the viscosity of more concentrated systems, and consequently enhancing the percentage of advanced recovery for all studied solutions / O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar o deslocamento de solu??es de petr?leo/diesel, em diferentes concentra??es, observando o efeito das vibra??es ultrass?nicas no deslocamento dos fluidos presentes em meio poroso para obter um aumento na produ??o de petr?leo. As bolhas formadas pelo ultrassom implodem na rocha de forma assim?trica, gerando jatos de l?quido em alta velocidade, deslocando o ?leo do meio poroso. As solu??es foram preparadas em concentra??es variadas de 20 g/L a 720 g/L em ?leo com rela??o ao solvente diesel e suas viscosidades analisadas em um Re?metro Brookfield RS2000, com intervalos de temperaturas de 25 a 55 ?C. Em seguida, foram realizados c?lculos para obten??o dos dados de energia de ativa??o das solu??es ?leo/diesel. Para a realiza??o dos experimentos de recupera??o de petr?leo foram utilizadas amostras de rochas porosas cil?ndricas (plugs) resinadas na lateral deixando as extremidades livres para a transposi??o dos fluidos at? a satura??o, inicialmente com solu??o de KCl (2%) e posteriormente com as solu??es de petr?leo. Foram obtidos resultados satisfat?rios da extra??o para todas as solu??es estudadas, obtendo-se um deslocamento parcial por meio de inje??o salina de at? 68%. Ap?s este estudo foi utilizado o sistema de ultrassom, que ajudou ainda mais no deslocamento final, obtendo-se extra??es que variaram entre 63% e 79% de petr?leo. Durante os experimentos ocorreu um aquecimento nos plugs, que auxiliou na diminui??o da viscosidade dos sistemas mais concentrados, e consequentemente aumentou os percentuais de recupera??o avan?ada para todas as solu??es estudadas

[pt] Na indústria do petróleo, a passagem de pigs em dutos tem sido largamente aplicada com diferentes propósitos: limpeza do tubo, inspeção, remoção de líquido e separação de produtos, entre outros. A eficiência e segurança de uma operação com pig demandam que diversos parâmetros operacionais, tais como pressões máximas e mínimas no duto e velocidade de movimentação do pig, sejam bem avaliados durante a etapa de planejamento e mantidos dentro de determinados limites durante o acompanhamento da operação. Tendo como objetivo a obtenção de uma ferramenta eficiente para ajudar no controle e projeto das operações de passagem de pigs, desenvolveu-se um código numérico baseado no método de diferenças finitas para a simulação de escoamentos transientes de dois fluidos, podendo estes ser líquido-líquido, gás-gás ou líquido-gás. Módulos para controle automático das variáveis do processo foram incluídos, visando à previsão do escoamento mediante diferentes estratégias para alcançar uma operação eficiente. Problemas teste foram realizados, validando a metodologia. Por fim, os resultados obtidos com o simulador são comparados com um caso real de esvaziamento de um trecho do oleoduto OSPAR, pertencente à Petrobras, com 30`` de diâmetro e extensão de 60 km. / [en] In the oil industry, pigging operations in pipelines have been largely applied for different purposes: pipe cleaning, inspection, liquid removal and product separation, among others. Pigging operations to be efficient and safe require a number of operational parameters, such as maximum and minimum pressures in the pipeline and pig velocity, to be well evaluated during planning stage and maintained within stipulated limits while the operation accomplishment. With the objective of providing an efficient tool to assist in the controlling and designing of pig operations through pipelines, a numerical code based on a finite difference scheme for a two-fluid transient flow simulation was developed. The model accounts for liquid-liquid, gas-gas and liquid-gas products in the pipeline. Automatic control modules for some process variables were included to permit the flow prediction by means of different strategies to reach an efficient operation. Test problems were performed to validate the methodology. At last, simulation results were compared with an actual liquid displacement operation at a 60 km segment of the 30`` diameter OSPAR pipeline, owned by Petrobras.

[pt] A injeção de emulsão é um método comum para melhorar o varrido do reservatório e manter-lo pressurizado. A eficiência de recuperação de óleo no caso de óleos pesados é limitada pela alta razão de mobilidade entre a água injetada e o óleo. Um método de reduzir o problema relativo µa alta razão de viscosidade é por injeção de soluções poliméricas. Porem, a interação líquido- rocha, os grandes volumes e o preço associado dos polímeros podem fazer esta técnica não aplicável em caso de campos gigantes. Diferentes métodos de recuperação avançada de óleo estão sendo desenvolvidos como alternativas µa injeção de polímeros. A injeção de dispersões, em particular a injeção de emulsões, têm sido tratadas com relativo sucesso como um método de recuperação avançada de óleo, mas as técnicas não são totalmente desenvolvidas ou compreendidas. O uso de cada método requer uma completa análise dos diferentes regimes de fluxo de emulsões dentro do espaço poroso de um reservatório. A maioria das análises de fluxo de emulsões em um meio poroso utiliza uma descrição macroscópica. Esta aproximãção é só valida para emulsões com o tamanho da fase dispersa muito menor do que o tamanho do poro. Se o tamanho de gota da fase dispersa é da mesma ordem de magnitude do tamanho de poro, as gotas podem aglomera-se e particularmente podem bloquear o fluxo através dos poros. Este regime de fluxo pode ser utilizado para controlar a mobilidade do líquido injetado, conduzindo a um fator de recuperação maior. Neste trabalho, experimentos de deslocamento de óleo foram executados em um corpo de prova de arenito. Os resultados mostram que a injeção de uma emulsão mudou o fator de recuperação de óleo, elevando este desde 40%, obtido só por injeção de água, ate um valor aproximado de 75%, seja em modo primario ou depois do influxo da água. / [en] Water injection is a common method to improve the reservoir sweep and maintain its pressure. The e±ciency of oil recovery in the case of heavy oils is limited by the high mobility ratio between the injected water and oil. A method of reducing the problem related to the high viscosity ratio is by polymer solution injection. However, the liquid-rock interaction, the large volume and the associated cost of polymer may make this technique not applicable in the case of giant fields. Different enhanced oil recovery methods are being developed and studied as alternatives to polymer injection. Dispersion injection, in particular oil-water emulsion injection, has been tried with relative success as an enhanced oil recovery method, but the techniques are not fully developed or understood. The use of such methods requires a complete analysis of the different flow regimes of emulsions inside the porous space of a reservoir. Most analyses of flow of emulsion in a porous media use a macroscopic description. This approach is only valid for dilute emulsion which the size of the disperse phase is much smaller of the pore throat. If the drop size of the disperse phase is of the same order of magnitude of the pore size, the drops may agglomerate and partially block the flow through pores. This flow regime may be used to control the mobility of the injected liquid, leading to higher recovery factor. In this work, experiments of oil displacement were performed in a sandstone plug. The results show that injection of an emulsion changed the oil recovery factor, raising it from approximately 40%, obtained with water injection alone, to approximately 75%, whether in primary mode or after water flooding.