College of Petroleum and Geosciences

Petroleum Engineering Department

Well Completion

Term Project 171

“OPTIMAL INJECTION RATES IN CARBONATE ACIDIZING”

Student Name: Marc Olosson

Submission Date: December 25, 2017
Table of Contents:

COVER PAGE 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

ABSTRACT 3

INTRODUCTION 4

OBJECTIVE & METHODOLOGY 5

RESULT 6-10

CONCLUSION 11

WORKS CITED 12

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 ABSTRACT

Optimal acid injection rate is essential information in carbonate matrix acidizing design. This

rate is achieved through the carbonate acidizing experimental results (Dong, Kai et al). Objective

is to find out optimum acid injection rate to obtain acid breakthrough in linear core floods of

carbonates using a minimum acid volume (Dong, Kai et al). A wormhole is form when the

larger pores on the surface follow a particular mechanism to grow cross sectional at an increased

rate than the smaller pores. The optimal acid injection is considered to be the rate of rock

composition, temperature and pore size distribution on the rock. In this experiment, we are

recreating a model to form wormhole by controlling the acid flow rate and allowing the pores to

grow quicker. We are introducing a porous medium model to yield interstitial velocity at the tip

of the wormhole. The optimal injection rates are then calculated based on the semi empirical

flow co-relations for different flow geometries (Wang, Hill et al.).

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INTRODUCTION

Carbonate acidizing experiments are important to determine the correct acid injection rate

for creating wormhole. The optimal wormholing can be attained at a particular acid injection rate

called optimal conditions. Wormholes are dissolution patters which are formed by the acidizing

process. In this experiment we are analyzing these optimal conditions in both experimental and

theoretical methods. Through this experiment, we will be able to find out different factors that

affect the optimal conditions such as the temperature, acid concentration, and the carbonate rock

types (Dong, Kai et al). If the temperature is high, it will result in a larger acid flux and large

pores whereas increased acid concentration leads to larger acid flux but smaller pores (Dong, Kai

et al). Acid, when poured into the rock, reacts with the minerals in the rock and changes its pore

structure and also the properties like porosity and permeability of the rock. The rate of pore

enlargement is represented by a pore growth function (Dong, Kai et al).

Morphology of wormholes was studied by Fogler by making their metal casts. It revealed

their complexity and diversity thus making the characterization difficult. They constructed a

network model that shows the unstable nature of the acidizing process because it was depending

on Damkohler number. But, the network model does not resolved questions about to the

dissolution patterns (Wang, Hill et al.).

Hung et al. reconstructed the flow with chemical reaction in parallel cylindrical pores.

This model was able to predict the wormhole existence but only in a limited range of acid flux.

We are trying to prove the existence of optimal rate experimentally. So whenever the acid flow

exceeds the optimal rate, the performance will be increased. Also, we are trying to create a

theoretical proof for the acid flux in the linear pores (Wang, Hill et al.).

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OBJECTIVE

To prove experimentally the existence of optimal rate of acid flow in creating wormholes

and also to prove theoretically the acid flux in linear pores.

METHODOLOGY

The experiments were conducted using limestones (Indiana and Glen Rose) and dolomite

at room temperature and a maintained pressure of 1000 psi. All the samples were 1 inch in

diameter and 5 or 6 inches long. Acid was injected at a constant rate into the cores. The room

temperatures for Indiana limestone was 50𝑜 C and for dolomite was 50𝑜 C and 75𝑜 C

respectively. Aqueous HCL of concentration 0.147 N, 1.0 N and 4.4 N were used. Higher acid

concentrations more than 1.0 are avoided in the laboratory because of the excessive backpressure

needed to keep them in the solution. The effects of dissolution on both higher and lower

concentrations of the acid were same at maintained pressure of 1000 psi. As a result of

dissolution, the pressure was decreased inside the core. This pressure drop is measured by using

a DDR-10 recorder. The wormhole length is also calculated using the function of injected fluid

volume and acid flux. The pH value remained as a constant 7 throughout the experiment was

reduced below 1 after the breakthrough was occurred.

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RESULT

Effect of injection rate on optimum rate

From the graph, it can be seen that when the injection rate is increased, the volume that is

required to create the breakthrough is decreased. It reaches a minimum value and then increases

slowly. The effect of injection rate is high for the rates below the optimum rate. The results were

verified for varying injection rates of 30 ml/hr, 180 ml/hr, and 480 ml/hr. At a lower injection

rate, the acid which was injected to limestone did not penetrate into the rock and no wormholes

were formed. So it is clear that the acid which was injected was dissolved on the surface itself.

At a medium injection rate, a single wormhole was formed on the rock. As the rate is increased,

wormholes are formed on the rock surface. Thus the formation of multiple wormholes needs

excess access to be injected to the rock at a given distance compared with the optimum case of a

single wormhole.

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Effect of acid concentration on optimum rate

The graph shows the effect of acid concentration. The relation between acid concentration and

optimum rate is directly proportional. As acid concentration decreases the optimum rate is also

decreased. This is because when the acid concentration is decreased, the rate of reaction is also

decreased. The amount of acid consumed at three different acid concentrations (HCL) at the

optimum rate was compared. When the moles of acid is considered, lower concentration of acids

provided a better result than the higher ones.

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Effect of Rock Mineralogy in optimum rate

The above graph represents the effect of different rocks to attain optimum case. Dolomite rocks

required more volume of acid than the limestone to create wormholes. This is because dolomite

shows low rate of reaction to acid compared to limestone. Optimum rate was not observed for

dolomite at room temperature. But, we are confident that optimum rate exists for dolomite.

When the acid flow rate is reduced such that only rock from the surface is dissolved, then we

will require 340 pore to dissolve the entire core. When this value is plotted on the graph, it

exceeds the values given. This shows that at very slow rates the volume must finally reach at a

minimum value.

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Effect of temperature on optimum rate

The graph represents the effect of temperature on optimum rate. The optimum rate also depends

on temperature. The observation from the graph is that as temperature increases the optimum rate

also increases. It is also observed that at a higher temperature, small volume of acid is required to

create breakthrough. The effect of temperature on the limestone – Indiana, shows increased

optimum rate for the increase in temperature. But at a higher temperature, it required more acid

volume to attain breakthrough unlike the dolomite. The acid volume which is needed to create a

wormhole decreases when the injection rate increases, where the flux is smaller than optimum.

When the rate increases than the optimum, the acid volume required will increase gradually with

the injection rate. This concludes that it will be good to inject acid at a rate which is above the

optimum.

Acid normally flows through the larger pores at a greater rate due to the lower resistance.

But there are chances that the larger pores are not connected to other pores on the surface. So we

are considering a mode size pore in our experiment. Thus our experiment has proved the

existence of acid flux and an optimum rate is determined by the dissolution rate of the acid on

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the rock. Based on this, a pore growth function can be written as, (growth function of a single

pore)

𝑑𝐴
= Ψ (𝐴, 𝐶0 )
𝑑𝑡

Where, A is the area of the pore.

To find the acid balance for the acid reaction that takes place along the pore walls,

𝜎Γ𝑅𝑎𝑣𝑒
Ψ=
𝜌𝑠

Where, 𝜌𝑠 is the density of the rock, 𝜎 is the mass of the rock, Γ is the perimeter of the pore and

𝑅𝑎𝑣𝑒 is the average rate of acid consumption.

For larger pores,

𝑢𝐶0 𝜎𝑀𝐻𝐶𝐿
Ψ= 𝐴2 Mass transfer control
8𝜋𝜌𝑠 𝐿𝑘

For small pores,

𝑢𝐶0 𝜎𝑀𝐻𝐶𝐿
Ψ= 𝐴2 Reaction Control
8𝜋𝜌𝑠 𝐿𝑘

In these equations, L is the mean pore length, k is the rock permeability, u is the acid flux, Co is

the acid concentration. These equations represent extreme conditions.

If all the pores created are small on the rock surface, a wormhole will not be created until some

pores reach an optimum size. This optimum size can be calculated with the following equation,

2⁄ 2⁄
𝐴𝑇 = 20𝐷𝑎 3 (𝐿𝑘) 3

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 𝐸𝑓𝐶0𝑚−1
Where, 𝐷𝑎 is defined as Damkohler number - 𝐷𝑎 =
𝑢

The Damkohler number is decreases when acid flux is increased or acid flux and pore size is

decreased.

Optimal condition at the wormhole tip,

∞ ∞

𝑞𝑡𝑖𝑝 = ∫ 𝑣𝑝 𝐴𝑝 𝐿𝑝 𝐴𝑡𝑖𝑝 𝜂(𝐴𝑝 ) 𝑑𝐴𝑝 = 𝐿𝑝 𝐴𝑡𝑖𝑝 ∫ 𝑣𝑝 𝐴𝑝 𝜂(𝐴𝑝 ) 𝑑𝐴𝑝

0 0

Thus, the optimal tip acid flux is calculated as,

𝑞𝑡𝑖𝑝 𝑜𝑝𝑡 𝑣𝑝 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑜𝑝𝑡 𝐿𝑝 𝑀2

𝜈𝑡𝑖𝑝 𝑜𝑝𝑡 = = .
𝐴𝑡𝑖𝑝 𝜙 𝐴𝑝 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝜙

CONCLUSION

We have successfully created the model for calculating the optimal conditions focuses on the

optimum acid flux. Based on the model, the optimal conditions and the effect of temperature on

them are studied. This can be basis to study the optimal conditions for different scales. When the

optimal tip flux to linear flow is upscaled, this model can also be used to predict the optimal

conditions for various acidizing experiments perfectly. From our experiment results; we can

conclude that the optimum injection rate does not exist normally in a highly reactive system. It

varies with the temperature, acid concentration and the rock density. The reaction rate of acid on

dolomite and limestone shows us that the rock density is having the most effect on optimum rate.

We have also found that an increased temperature will increase the reaction rate of dolomite and

this is similar to Indiana limestone.

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 Works Cited

Dong, Kai et al. "Theoretical And Experimental Study On Optimal Injection Rates In Carbonate

Acidizing." SPE Journal, vol 22, no. 03, 2017, pp. 0892-0901. Society Of Petroleum Engineers

(SPE), doi:10.2118/178961-pa.

Wang, Hill et al. “The Optimum Injection Rate for Matrix Acidizing of Carbonate

Formations.” SPE Journal, Society Of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), 26578-pa.

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