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Stability mechanism of SiO2/SDS dispersion for foam flooding in hydrocarbon reservoirs: experimental research and molecular simulation

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Abstract

The dispersion of silica dioxide (SiO2)/sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS) has been widely used in hydrocarbon reservoirs, but its instability is still a problem in practical engineering applications. The dispersion morphology of SiO2 nanoparticles before and after modification was studied by TEM, and the thermal stability of different foam dispersions was evaluated by FoamScan. In this paper, the mechanism of foam stability was investigated by combining the measurement of interfacial energy of nanoparticles at the gas–liquid interface with dynamics simulation of molecular diffusion. The results showed that SiO2/SDS dispersions had good thermal stability due to the synergistic effect of SiO2 nanoparticles and SDS. The addition of SiO2 nanoparticles improved the interfacial energy and interfacial activity at the gas–liquid interface, meanwhile limited the movement of SDS molecules and water molecules, which was beneficial for foam stability. Notably, the addition of modified SiO2 nanoparticles further enhanced the interfacial energy at the gas–liquid interface and strengthened the restriction of water/SDS molecular movement, thereby slowing down the drainage and decay of the foam dispersions. The mechanism investigation of SiO2/SDS dispersions was of benefit to foam flooding in hydrocarbon reservoirs.

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Funding

The research was supported by Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Oil–gas Storage and Transportation Technology (CDYQCY202201), and the Science and Technology Project of Changzhou City (Grant No. CJ20210120), and the Research Start-up Fund of Changzhou University (Grant No. ZMF21020056). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and valuable opinions gratefully.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Oil-Gas Storage and Transportation Technology, School of Petroleum Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, Jiangsu, China

    Nannan Liu, Yan Chen, Hui Du, Hui Xu, Yingnan Zhang & Huijun Zhao

  2. North China Center of Geoscience Innovation, Tianjin Center, China Geological Survey (CGS), Tianjin, 300170, China

    Wanjun Jiang

  3. Department of Enhanced Oil Recovery, RIPED, Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xinglong Chen

  4. Institute of Porous Flow & Fluid Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Langfang, 102801, Hebei, China

    Xinglong Chen

  5. School of Energy Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Binshan Ju

Authors
  1. Nannan Liu
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  2. Yan Chen
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  3. Wanjun Jiang
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  7. Yingnan Zhang
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Contributions

Nannan Liu: writing—original draft, investigation, conceptualization, methodology, supervision, validation, funding acquisition. Yan Chen: writing—review & editing, software, investigation, data curation. Hui Xu: software, investigation, supervision, visualization. Yingnan Zhang: formal analysis, language, draft structure. Hui Du: language, formal analysis. Wanjun Jiang: formal analysis, draft structure. Xinglong Chen: writing—review & editing, formal analysis. Huijun Zhao: visualization. Binshan Ju: investigation, supervision, visualization.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nannan Liu or Wanjun Jiang.

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Highlights

• The mechanism of foam stability is investigated by molecular dynamics simulation.

• The interfacial energy of nanoparticles at the gas-liquid interface and the molecular diffusion were studied.

• The addition of SiO2 nanoparticles enhanced the interface stability and restricted the movement of molecular.

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Liu, N., Chen, Y., Jiang, W. et al. Stability mechanism of SiO2/SDS dispersion for foam flooding in hydrocarbon reservoirs: experimental research and molecular simulation. J Mol Model 28, 264 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00894-022-05277-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00894-022-05277-7

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