Structure/Performance

Relationships
for
Surfactant Stabilized Foams
in Porous Media
L.L.Schramm
S.M.Kutay

Presentasi Makalah Teknologi Solgel

Maria E Prasetyo
23306005
Program Magister Teknik Fisika
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Structure/Performance
Relationships for Surfactant
Stabilized Foams
in Porous Media
Introduction
EOR, Foam, Surfactant, Porous Media
Problem
Experiment & Result
Conclusion
Introduction
Excessive gas and/or water production is a
common problem encountered throughout the
lifetime of oil-producing wells.
High-producing gas/oil or water/oil ratios are
normally responsible for both rapid productivity
decline and increased operating costs caused
by gas or water processing. The result is often a
premature shut-in of wells because production
has become uneconomical.
Foamed gels have been used as selective
barriers to counteract disproportionate gas/oil
and/or water/oil ratios in oil production.However,
research on the effects of critical parameters
such as wettability of the porous medium and
pore geometry on foamed-gel-blockage
performance remains incomplete.
 Excessive rapid productivity
Gas +/water decline
Production increased operating
cost production

premature shut-in of wells

Foamed gels
used as selective barrier
Introduction
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR):
techniques for increasing the amount of oil
that can be extracted from an oil field.
Using EOR, 30-60 %, or more, of the
reservoir's original oil can be extracted
compared with 20-40% using primary and
secondary recovery.
The "secondary recovery" is the process in
which a second immiscible fluid (usually
water) is injected in the medium, pushing
out the oil from a porous medium
Introduction
Foams for Enhanced Oil Recovery
Gases such as steam, carbon dioxide
(CO2) and hydrocarbon gases are injected
into oil reservoirs to increase the recovery
of oil.
These gases are much less dense and
less viscous than the oil they attempt to
displace, so they tend to finger through or
migrate to the top of the reservoir, leaving
most of the oil behind.
Foams can help these gases to sweep oil
reservoirs more efficiently.
Introduction
Foams for EOR:
- mobility control foams / gas-injection-well
treatments
- gas-blocking foams for oil-production-
well treatments.
When foams are used for mobility control,
the most important parameter is the
viscous performance of the foam, while in
the case of gas-blocking foams, the
fundamental issue is their capability to
divert unwanted fluids (Schramm 1994).
 In these applications, the foam is usually prepared in
situ by coinjection of gas and surfactant solution. As
the mixture of gas and surfactant solution flows
through the porous rock, rapid shear strain occurs and
leads quite naturally to the generation and stretching
of bubbles within the pores.
The texture of the foam (that is, the size of the
bubbles) depends mainly on the size of the pores.
Similarly, the number of bubbles that exist will be
determined by the balance between the rate of
generation of lamellae and the rate of decay.
The rate of generation depends on pore sizes and
porous-media complexities, and it should be roughly
proportional to the flow rate. The rate of decay is the
result of several simultaneous processes such as
lamellae rupture and coalescence that cause bubbles
breakdown
 Foams are structured, two-phase fluids that
are compressible in nature
The bulk liquid is at the bottom of the foam
structure, and the gas phase is at the upper
side.
The gas phase is separated from the thin liquid
film by a 2D interface, or lamella, which is
defined as the region that encompasses the
thin film, the two interfaces on either side of
the thin film, and part of the junction to other
lamellae. The connection of three lamellae, at
an angle of 120, is referred to as the plateau
border
 A porous medium or a porous material is a solid (often
called frame or matrix) permeated by an interconnected
network of pores (voids) filled with a fluid (liquid or gas). Usually
both the solid matrix and the pore network (also known as the
pore space) are assumed to be continuous, so as to form two
interpenetrating continua such as in a sponge. Many natural
substances such as rocks, soils, biological tissues (e.g. bones),
and man made materials such as cements, foams and
ceramics can be considered as porous media.
A poroelastic medium is characterised by its porosity,
permeability as well as the properties of its constituents (solid
matrix and fluid).
The concept of porous media is used in many areas of applied
science and engineering: mechanics (acoustics, geomechanics,
soil mechanics, rock mechanics), engineering (petroleu
engineering, construction engineering), geosciences
(hydrogeology, petroleum geology, geophysics), biology and
biophysics, material science, etc.
 Gas mobility in the presence of foam depends
critically on foam-bubble size; bubble size may
vary with permeability, porosity, surfactant type
and concentration, and the velocity of liquid and
gas. This paper adopts a local equilibrium,
scaling perspective to describe quantitatively
foamed-gas mobility within heterogeneous
porous media.
porosity plays an important role in setting gas
mobility because it reflects the relative
abundance of foam germination and termination
sites per unit volume of porous media. Liquid
velocity is also important because gas mobility is
inversely proportional to this factor
 Other techniques include thermal recovery
(which uses heat to improve flow rates),
and, more rarely, chemical injection, where
polymers are injected to increase the
effectiveness of waterfloods, or the use of
detergent-like surfactants to help lower the
surface tension that often prevents oil
droplets from moving through a reservoir.
Foam as drive fluid for enhanced oil
recovery (EOR)has shown promise,
particularly in steamflooding field
applications.
 Some situations with uncontrolled flow of gas are
illustrated in Figure 1a:
Poor area sweep is illustrated in the upper layer
gas channels through a high permeability streak is
illustrated in the middle
gravity segregation is shown in the lower layer.
By injection of surfactant solution together with the
gas, the pore network can be filled with foam films that
span the pore cross section, and impede gas flow.
Then, gas is forced to flow into unswept parts of
thereservoir (Figure 1b).
Foam may also be employed in production wells that
produces too much gas. A foam plug in the gas
producing zone may reduce adverse effects of
highpermeability streaks, gas override, fingering,
channelling and coning.
 Oil foam interactions
Foam will inevitably come into contact with
oil, and the stability of foam in the
presence of oil is therefore an important
issue.
Different oils influence foams differently,
and it is important for the selection of
chemicals for a given field treatment to
understand the principles that determine
the effect of foam/oil interactions.
 Oil has a major destabilizing effect on foam.
It is important to understand:
How oil destabilizes foam
What surfactant properties lead to
increased stability against oil.
Oil-tolerant foam can be produced by making
the oil surface "water wet".
Foam must remain stable against oil, that is
remain as a dispersion of gas in liquid, for EOR
applications.
When flowing foam in porous media coalesces
into its two separate phases, liquid and gas, it no
longer provides a large flow resistance and is
ineffective for oil recovery
 Left: the aqueous phase is able to spread
over the oil, forming a stable film of water
between oil and gas, a so-called
pseudoemulsion film. Then oil droplets in
the pore system will appear to the film as a
part of the rock, and foam oil tolerance is
ensured.
Right: in contrast, water does not wet the
oil, unstable pseudoemulsion films,
capillary forces will minimise the oil-water
contact area, and film rupture is then likely
to occur when films encounter oil drops.
Experimental
Materials:
Dow XSS 84321.05 (Dow Chemical Co.)
- an anionic hydrocarbon surfactant
- 1:1 mixture of Dowfax 3B2 (C10
diphenyletherdisulfonate) adn Canada
Stirling AOS (C14-16 alpha olefin
sulfonates)
Rewoteric AM U Varion CAS (Witco Co.)
- an amphoteric surfactant
- alkylamido sulfobetaine
 Degassed 2.1% w/w TDS (total disolved
solid) brine solution
- density 1.015 g/cm, viscocity
0.997.mPas at 23C
- filtered through 0.45 m filter under 10 psi
pressure prior to use
Table 2 = the composition of Beaverhill
Lake reservoir brine in Western Canadian
Basin
Nitrogen Gas, minimum purity 99.5%
Procedure
Foam in Porous Media:
The differential pressure generated across the length
of the core sample is measured and the apparent
viscosity is calculated using a modified version of
Darcys Law:
: viscocity

app =AP : permeability

QL A: cross sectional area
P: pressure
Q: flow rate
L: length
 Polymer-surfactant solutions + N2

initial mixing chamber

foam generator

core

Foam injection rate: 2-4 m/day at 95% gas-

fraction foam quality, 23 C, 10 psi
 Gel foam imaging studies:
Sufactant-stabilized foam injection rate
2m/day at 80% foam quality
The core samples were flooded with foam
until steady-state flow was attained
The core was shut in for several day to allow
complete gelation
Foam gelling sectioning imaging
 Foam in Bulk/ Pipeline:
The conditions were chosen to maintain foam travel
in the laminar flow region
Viscosity is calculated using Hagen Poiseuille Law

= PR4
8L1Q

- Pipe 3 m long, internal diameter 0.6 cm

- Visual cells were positioned at the entrance and exit
of the pipeline to monitor the foam texture
- Minimum ratio pipe diameter : bubble size = 10
- Average bubble diameter: 50 -100 m
 Polymer-surfactant solutions + N2

initial mixing chamber

foam generator (0.5 15 m)

pipeline

Polymer thickened foam injection rate 90

or 200 s-1 at 95% gas-fraction foam quality
Low energy SEM to determine the foam
structure
 Results
Figure 2 + 3:
Viscosities of Varion and Dow in porous media
Increasing the flow rate decreases the apparent
viscosity
Increased concentration increased viscosity
(concentration Varion > 10g/L reduces its viscosity)
Surface elasticity foam stability reduction
viscosity reduction
Figure 4 + 5: Varion and Dow in pipeline
Increased concentration increased viscosity
(less than in porous media)
Bulk flow vs Constraint
flow
Figure 6-9: compare the effect
PHPA-surfactant for bulk and constraint
flow at two different shear rates
Effective viscosity in constraint media:
1-25 x > than the same foam in bulk flow
Important factors: permeability, porosity,
pore size distribution of the rock
 Foam Imaging (SEM):
Foam lamellae in porous media can extend
for considerable distances > the length of
individual pores
Ability to penetrating through multiple pores
and to span across multiple pores
Figure 10+11:
PHPA-Dow: rod + large sheet perforation
Figure 12+13:
PHPA-Varion: pore blocking sheets
Consistent with the 25x > viscosity found in
rock than in bulk
Foam morphology
Conclusions

This experimental work is important to

the spesification and formulation of the
most effective surfactants for varying
applications including mobility control,
blocking and diverting.
The explanation for the observed
differences among different surfactant
system with respect to bulk flow vs
constraint flow is foam morphology.
 In porous media, foam is a gas (or
immiscible liquid) dispersed in a second
interconnected liquid partially comprising
thin, surfactant-stabilized films called
lamellae. The surfactant used to impart
stability to the mixture concentrates at the
gas/liquid interface to reduce interfacial
tension and form stable lamellae.
TERIMA KASIH