Temperature Effects On Alkaline Flooding For Heavy Oil Recovery in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Porous1
Temperature Effects On Alkaline Flooding For Heavy Oil Recovery in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Porous1
Temperature Effects On Alkaline Flooding For Heavy Oil Recovery in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Porous1
Environmental Effects
To cite this article: Esmaeil Darash, Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji, Arezou Jafari, Arsalan
Parvareh & Omid Alizadeh (2023) Temperature effects on alkaline flooding for heavy oil
recovery in heterogeneous and homogeneous porous media: Pore scale evaluation, Energy
Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 45:2, 4853-4869, DOI:
10.1080/15567036.2023.2184432
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2023.2184432
Article views: 43
Introduction
The main purpose of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is to increase the production of oil from reservoirs
through improving the efficiency of injected fluid (Lyu et al. 2018). Alkaline flooding has been
considered as an enhanced oil recovery method. The cost-effectiveness of alkaline and its high
abundance compared to other chemicals have made alkaline flooding an efficient method among
CONTACT Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji moraveji@aut.ac.ir Department of Chemical Engineering Amirkabir University of
Technology, Tehran, Iran; Arezou Jafari ajafari@modares.ac.ir Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Department of Petroleum
Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
4854 E. DARASH ET AL.
chemical flooding methods (Du et al. 2012; Elyaderani and Jafari 2019). In addition, alkaline flooding
is suitable for the reservoirs containing high viscosity crude oil, because they contain high organic acid
(Speight 2019). In contrast, a stable emulsion mechanism that is supposed to help increase oil recovery
requires special surface installations that dramatically increase the cost of operation and project capital
(Mahdavi and Zebarjad 2018). Also, the use of alkaline solutions at high concentrations is limited,
because the environment with very high alkalinity can lead to the formation of precipitates that can
block the pores’ throats and in turn reduce the productivity index (Krumrine, Mayer, and Brock 1985).
In this method, alkaline reacts with the acidic components in the oil to produce the in-situ active
substance (Mohsenatabar Firozjaii, Derakhshan, and Shadizadeh 2018). When the water and oil
phases come in contact with each other, the alkaline in the water phase and the organic acids in the
oil phase move to the interface, reacting with each other to produce surfactants (Figure 1) (Samanta,
Ojha, and Mandal 2011). In other words, in situ anionic surfactant produced, helps to reduce the IFT.
The reaction of alkaline and acids in petroleum has been shown in Equation (1): In this reaction, HA
represents petroleum acid and A- represents an anionic surfactant (Sheng 2015).
Considering the research conducted on the effect of alkaline flooding on macroscopic displace
ments of fluid flow on pore scales, so far, only one study has been conducted on the effect of
temperature on oil recovery in heavy-oil alkaline flooding and a lot of subjects in this area are
ambiguous. Despite extensive studies on alkaline flooding of conventional oil reservoirs, research on
the flooding of heavy oil reservoirs is limited due to the unfavorable mobility ratio between the water
and oil phases. The factors affecting the flooding performance of alkaline include temperature,
wettability, and permeability of the glass network. Therefore, the distribution of alkaline solution at
the pore scale during alkaline flooding in the micromodel and the mechanisms by which the alkaline
solution moves the oil phase under the influence of parameters such as temperature, permeability, and
wettability have not been fully understood. Therefore, in this study, first the effect of temperature on
heavy oil recovery during alkaline flooding in homogeneous micromodel (in order to minimize the
presence of dead-end pores) and then in heterogeneous micromodel (with the aim of the effect of
permeability on flooding process) in both oil-wet and water-wet states has been examined. Also, for
better analysis of the results of phase behavior of alkaline solutions, interfacial tension of oil/injected
fluids and viscosity of alkalines were measured at different temperatures. In the following, first the
materials and equipment used have been described and then the laboratory activities including
preparation of solutions, phase behavior test of alkaline, determination of viscosity of injected fluids
and measurement of interfacial tension are expressed, and finally flooding tests in both homogeneous
and heterogeneous have been presented. The experimental steps are shown in the flow diagram
(Figure 2).
Experimental methods
Preparing solutions
Since the principal purpose of this work, is to evaluation the effect of temperature on alkaline flooding
in different porous media and considering that by changing the concentration of alkaline solution, the
effect of temperature as the main parameter on alkaline flooding cannot be investigated, a moderate
concentration (0.5 wt%) was chosen for the concentration of alkaline solution in all experiments.
30 min at 50°C, and it was gently shaken about 100 times. Then, the type of emulsion formed by the
micrographic images was determined. Finally, ImageJ software has been used to check the size of the
droplets.
Viscosity measurement
The viscosity values of crude oil sample and aqueous solutions were measured using Brookfield
viscometer at the temperatures of 25, 50, 75 and 90°C.
IFT measurement
The IFT values of crude oil sample and aqueous solutions were measured at 25, 50, 75 and 90°C using
the Lauda TE3 tensometer and using the pendant drop method. The schematic of the IFT measure
ment device has been shown in Figure 3.
In this method, the droplet is hung from a very small hole. Based on interfacial and intermolecular
forces, the drop tends to take a spherical shape to minimize the contact surface with the second phase.
The surface tension can be calculated by measuring the different dimensions of this hanging drop in
the presence of the second phase.
Micromodel flooding
The micromodel system, which includes a New Era injection pump, a light source, a vacuum pump,
a Nikon D5300 camera, a computer, and a Dino-lite microscope, has been used for floodings
(Figure 4). In this study, two homogeneous (Figure 4a) and heterogeneous (Figure 4b) glass micro
models have been used, in which the study of pore-scale displacement mechanisms is visually provided
and are also economical (Bou-Mikael 2012). CorelDraw software was used to design the micromodels
to engrave the designs on the glass. The designed heterogeneous micromodel has three areas of high,
intermediate, and low permeability.
Prior to each experiment, the micromodels were washed using toluene and distilled water
and discharged by a vacuum pump. Then, the methods described in the references were used
to make the micro-models water-wet and oil-wet (Meybodi, Kharrat, and Araghi 2011, 2011):
Next, the models were saturated with oil, and then the process of flooding began at the rate of
1 μl/min. During each experiment, images were taken every 5 min using the camera and the
final oil recovery was calculated using Photoshop software. Finally, by examining the micro
scopic images, any changes in the scale of the pores were examined. It should be noted that
an oven has been used to adjust the temperature of the micromodel at the desired tempera
ture. The micromodels were also placed horizontally during the experiments to minimize the
effect of gravity. The properties of the micromodels as well as the values for the permeability
of the micromodels have been given in Table 1. The absolute permeability values of the
Width(mm) 50 80
micromodels were selected at three different flow rates according to Darcy's law, and the
pressure drop associated with each flow was recorded in the system after the flow stabilization
(Dullien 2012).
Arhuoma et al. (2009) showed that the viscosity of the W/O emulsion increased with increasing
number of droplets and their size. The increase in the quality of the water in oil emulsion is directly
related to the increase in the number and size of water droplets. Therefore, with increasing tempera
ture up to 50°C, the quality of the emulsion increases and as a result, its effective viscosity increases.
However, according to Figure 5, at a temperature above 50°C, the size and number of droplets decrease
significantly, and the water droplets are going to disappear at 90°C. Therefore, an optimal value for
temperature can be defined that the number and size of droplets enhance up to that temperature.
Assessment of viscosity
The viscosity measurement of injection solutions and oil at different temperatures has been shown in
Table 2. As can be seen, as the temperature rises from 25 to 90°C, the viscosity values of NaOH
solutions, Na2CO3, and distilled water, as well as oil, decreases. According to a general rule (Eq.2), the
higher the viscosity of a fluid (here oil), in return for a certain increase in temperature, its viscosity will
decrease more significantly.
μ ¼ bexpðC=T Þ (2)
μ: Viscosity b, C: Coefficient T: Temperature
NaOH Na2CO3
13
12.5
12
11.5
pH
11
10.5
10
9.5
9
0 25 50 75 100
Temperature(°C)
Figure 6. pH reduction of alkaline solutions at different temperatures.
12
10
IFT(mN/m)
8
6
4
2
0
0 25 50 75 100
Temperature(°C)
Figure 7. IFT reduction of oil/water at different temperatures.
a b
Figure 8. Effect of temperature on reducing IFT of alkaline solutions a) NaOH b) Na2CO3.
with the sodium carbonate, because the pH of the solution is about 11.2, has not been able to produce
as much surfactant as the alkaline sodium hydroxide. As the pH of the sodium hydroxide solution is
12.9; it can be said that more in-situ surfactant has been produced. According to Figures 7 and 8, when
the temperature is in the range of ambient temperature, among the solutions of sodium hydroxide,
sodium carbonate, and water, the lowest IFT is related to sodium hydroxide, which is about 1mN/m.
This makes crude oil easily cut and broken subjected to the comprehensive forces when the oil/alkaline
system lowers the IFT to a very small extent by ionizing the organic acids in the oil and producing
in situ surfactants and the alkaline solution penetrates the crude oil, which increases the mobility of the
oil. As the temperature rises from 25 to 90°C, the IFT between water and oil decreases from 10.43 to
7.9mN/m (Figure 7).
In addition, according to Figure 8, as the temperature increases from 25 to 90°C, the time it takes to
reach the lowest IFT is reduced, indicating that low or medium temperatures are more effective in
4860 E. DARASH ET AL.
reducing IFT. When the temperature reaches 75 and 90°C, the IFT of sodium hydroxide solution
increases to 3.98 and 4.09mN/m, respectively, which means that the oil drop is not broken and the
alkaline solution loses its ability to penetrate the oil. IFT also shows a slight decrease in sodium
carbonate solution and decreases to 6.7mN/m at 90°C.
The results of values of crude oil sample and aqueous solutions show that temperature has
a positive and negative effect on reducing IFT. At low temperatures, the chemical reaction between
sodium hydroxide and oil acids is enhanced and benefits from reduced IFT. However, when the
temperature reaches more than 75°C, the sodium hydroxide instability increases with increasing
temperature and it leads to poor absorption of sodium hydroxide molecules and a decrease in the
amount of in-situ surfactant at the oil/alkaline interface. Therefore, oil/sodium hydroxide IFT
increases.
1 2
Reduction performance
Entrainment of the oil by Na2CO3
Na2CO3 by entrapment into oil
3 4
a
1 2
3 4
c
Figure 9. Floodings into homogeneous water-wet medium a) Na2CO3 b) NaOH c) Water at temperatures of 1) 25°C 2) 50°C 3) 75°C 4)
90°C.
4862 E. DARASH ET AL.
This is due to the high surface tension of the injected fluids/oil and thus the high capillary forces. In this
case, the remaining oil saturation will be in the form of interconnected masses of oil. In fact, the number
of capillaries, which represents the ratio of viscous forces to capillaries, should be multiplied. In the case
of sodium hydroxide flooding, a slight two-phase surface tension can reduce capillary forces and
consequently oil production. As a result, the capillary number increases and trapped oil is produced.
According to Table 3, the highest capillary value is related to sodium hydroxide solution. This causes the
solution to extract more oil than the other injected fluids during flooding at ambient temperature,
resulting in lower residual oil saturation. Also, according to the results of viscosity (Table 2) and surface
tension, it is observed that the changes in surface tension are greater than the changes in viscosity.
Therefore, capillary force is a more effective factor in oil displacement compared to viscosity force and
has a greater impact on oil efficiency. It should be noted that with increasing temperature to 75 and
90°C, the surface tension of sodium hydroxide/oil increases, which consequently reduces the capillary
number. Data on the capillary number of injected fluids at different temperatures have been given in
Table 3.
In Figures 9 (A1 and B1), which are related to the flooding of sodium carbonate and sodium
hydroxide at ambient temperature, respectively, ultimate oil recoveries sequently were achieved about
42 and 46%. As observed in Figure 9a,b, the efficiency of the oil recovery first improves with increasing
temperature to 50°C and then decreases. For sodium hydroxide, an increase of more than 23% was
observed relative to the ambient temperature and for Sodium carbonate, an increase of 9% was
observed relative to the ambient temperature. As the temperature rises to 75 and 90°C, the alkaline
flooding performance decreases, and as the temperature rises, the oil recovery rate decreases. During
water flooding at ambient temperature, the water passes into a direction with the least capillary
pressure and reaches the production well in the fastest way. Hence, many pores are not affected by
water and much of the oil remains in the reservoir after flooding. In Figure 9c1, which presents water
flooding at 25°C, the oil is slightly displaced by the injected water, resulting in an efficiency of about
29%. However, in Figure 9c2, due to the increase in micromodel temperature (50°C), decrease in oil
viscosity and IFT between water and oil, it is observed that more oil has been produced and oil
recovery factor increases from 29 to 34.5% and produces about 5% more oil. As shown in Figures 9c3
and 9c4, this process of improving sweep efficiency is also observed at 75 and 90. ℃. As the
temperature of the micromodel rises to 90°C, oil recovery increases to 59.3%, an increase of more
than 30% over the ambient temperature. Finally, the results of ultimate oil recovery in Figure 10 show
that water flooding shows better performance at 90°C than alkaline floodings. It can be concluded that
during alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide at ambient temperature, it is observed that the quality of
water emulsion in oil is better in terms of both the number of drops and their larger size than sodium
carbonate. But at high temperatures, because the water emulsion in the oil cannot be easily formed,
and the fluid tends to move from the center of the pores, it can be seen that in these temperatures the
oil recovery has decreased significantly.
NaOH Na2CO3 WF
80
69.7
59.3
20
0
25 50 75 90
Temperature(°C)
Figure 10. Influence of the temperature on water/alkaline flooding in homogeneous micromodel in water-wet state.
fingering has decreased in the low-permeability region and more transverse diffusion has occurred in
the high-permeability region. In fact, we observe this condition due to the increase in the effective
viscosity of the emulsion formed and the further reduction of the IFT of alkalis, which is due to the
reaction of alkalis with organic acids in crude oil (Figure 11a,b). Both the viscosity of the oil and the
rate of reaction between the crude oil sample and aqueous solutions change with temperature. It can
be concluded that the oil recovery performance for the two alkaline samples is similar with tempera
ture changes. However, at the temperature of 50°C, according to the micrograph images, the quality of
the emulsion formed by sodium hydroxide is much better than the ambient temperature, both in
Capillary effect: Due to the capillary forces, flow could not enter many pores throats
Figure 11. Floodings into heterogeneous water-wet medium; a) Na2CO3 b) NaOH c) Water at temperatures of 1) 25°C 2) 50°C 3)
75°C 4) 90°C.
4864 E. DARASH ET AL.
terms of the number of droplets and their size. This increases the viscosity of the W/O emulsion, and
the injected fluid front shows a greater tendency to transverse diffusion, which increases oil recovery
compared to sodium carbonate and water flooding. Compared to other enhanced oil recovery
methods, such as polymer flooding (Liu et al. 2017; Wang et al. 2003), gel blocking (Zhang and Bai
2011) and injection of NPs (Olayiwola and Dejam 2020), sodium hydroxide flooding can provide
promising results. Because emulsion blocking of the formation is not necessarily a permanent blocking
method, which can be removed by de-emulsification, so it applies less damage to the formation.
The alkaline flooding efficiency decreased with increasing temperature up to 75 and 90°C due to the
weakness in the uniform production of in situ surfactants, and it was observed that the oil recovery
rate decreases. With the onset of the process of water flooding in the heterogeneous micromodel, water
easily breaks through the production port after passing through high permeability region in the porous
medium in the form of a finger pattern. When distilled water enters the micromodel, due to the large
distance between the grains, the capillary force is reduced in the area with higher permeability and the
fluid continues to move in the direction of less energy loss and less obstruction. Eventually, moving in
a low-permeability environment increases the velocity of the fluid due to the reduction in the diameter
of the pores and overcomes the capillary force in this part. This is due to the tendency of the fluid to
move in pores with lower capillary force, followed by the formation of a finger phenomenon in this
medium (Figure 11c1). Water flood performance improved with increasing temperature to 75 and
90°C, and it was observed that the oil recovery rate increases with increasing temperature, and the
injected water displaces the oil in a piston-like state. Observations show that the efficiency of the water
flooding process is a strong function of the viscosity ratio of oil to water. In other words, the oil
recovery rate at high temperatures is inversely related to the viscosity of the oil, so that decreasing the
viscosity of oil at 75 and 90°C increases oil recovery compared to alkaline flooding. According to the
microscopic images of sodium hydroxide flooding at ambient temperature, it can be observed that
after alkaline flooding, there is an oil film between the injected fluid and the surface of the pores and
this shows that during the flooding, complete wettability change has occurred in many areas, and
almost all the walls of the pores have become oil-wet. Sodium carbonate flooding, on the other hand,
causes only a slight change in wettability in some areas of the glass network (Figures 12a,b). It should
be noted that due to the inability of sodium carbonate to form W/O emulsion, microscopic examina
tion of the formed emulsions was performed during sodium hydroxide flooding. The residual oil is
trapped in the throats after the water flooding in the form of oil droplets due to the greater capillary
force in these areas, between the grains and in the form that remains on the walls of the pores
(Figure 12c). In strongly water-wet medium, water replaces oil with a spontaneously imbibition
mechanism and expels it from the pores. This mechanism leads to relatively higher microscopic
displacement efficiency compared to the oil-wet medium (Mehranfar and Ghazanfari 2014). Since in
the water-wet glass network, advanced imbibition makes it easier for liquids to enter the throat of the
pores. Finally, the microscopic results of floodings show that the difference in the permeability of the
pores makes the fluid effective, depending on which path is chosen with less capillary force or the
predominant pressure gradient.
Microscopic examinations in Figure 13a-d show that as the temperature increases from 25°C to
50°C, the W/O emulsion increases in both number and size of droplets. With more increasing the
temperature, the emulsion decreases, so no emulsion was observed at 90°C. An in situ anionic
surfactant produced during the reaction of alkaline and natural organic acids in oil is adsorbed on
the quartz substrate through hydrogen or electrostatic bond interactions between the hydrophilic
surfactant head and the quartz substrate. Wettability changes when anionic surfactants are
adsorbed on the substrate. When the wettability of the pores wall changes from water-wet to oil-
wet, the film of water constantly disappears and the water channel between the walls of the pores
and the oil phase will be blocked. This could lead to increased fluid pressure and alkali penetration
into the oil phase, which could improve the alkaline flood sweep efficiency. However, oil viscosity
decreases at high temperatures, and as a result, with increasing temperature, a favorable mobility
ratio between alkaline solution and oil may appear, and the sweep efficiency at high temperatures
ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4865
c
Figure 12. a, b) Wettability alteration in Na2CO3 and NaOH floodings c) oil trapped in water flooding.
remains weak. It can be explained that the reaction between crude oil sample and alkaline
solutions may be accelerated at higher temperatures. Reducing the effect of interfacial tension
and weakening the uniform enrichment of in-situ surfactants makes these changes undesirable for
water droplets to form within the oil phase, which is the main mechanism for alkaline flooding for
crude oil. Also, because the fluid motion is in the center of the pores and in fingering form, it is
also observed that the pH decreases with increasing temperature and the alkaline properties of the
alkaline solution are reduced and interfacial tension is increased, which reduces oil recovery. By
comparing alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, it can be concluded that
sodium hydroxide alkaline has a higher ability to increase the oil recovery. Thus, at the same
weight percentage of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide has increased
the pH of the medium and produced more surfactant due to its higher alkalinity, and the heavy oil
recovery has increased more than sodium carbonate. According to Figure 14, which shows the
ultimate oil recovery during various floodings, oil recovery during the alkaline flooding of sodium
hydroxide and sodium carbonate at ambient temperature was more than 46 and 41%, respectively,
which has shown an increase of more than 13 and 8% compared to water flooding. As the
temperature increased to 50°C during the alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide, 17% increase
and also by more than 16% increase were observed for sodium carbonate compared to ambient
temperature. However, with increasing the temperature to 90°C, the performance of both alkalis is
reduced and oil recovery during water flooding is better. Observation of this type of trend in oil
recovery rate with increasing temperature in alkaline flooding in sandstone was also observed in
the research of Ge et al. (2012). However, in this study, an appropriate understanding of the
emulsion behavior at high temperatures is not achieved due to the lack of study of the pore-scale
displacement mechanisms by microscopic images. The results show that with increasing
4866 E. DARASH ET AL.
W/O emulsions
Emulsified small trapped oil droplets Thick layer residual oil on the wall
d
Figure 13. Emulsions formed by sodium hydroxide in heterogeneous water-wet porous medium at temperatures a) 25°C b) 50°C c)
75°C d) 90°C.
NaOH Na2CO3 WF
80 75.6
66.9
64
58.7
Oil Recovery (%)
58.2
60 55
51.4
46.6 45.7 44.5
41.7
40 33
20
0
25 50 75 90
Temperature(°C)
Figure 14. Influence of the temperature on water/alkaline flooding in heterogeneous micromodel in water-wet state.
temperature and decreasing surface tension and oil viscosity, the recovery rate increased and more
than 75% recovery was observed during water flooding for 90°C.
The microscopic and microscopic examination of alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide was
performed in two homogeneous and heterogeneous models at 50°C in oil-wet state to evaluate the
ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4867
effect of wettability on the oil recovery rate at the temperature at which maximum oil recovery
occurred in the water-wet state. As shown in Figure 15 associated with macroscopic and microscopic
images, the final recovery of oil at this temperature is less than when flooding occurs in water-wet
mode. This is due to the ability of sodium hydroxide to change the wettability to the oil-wet state
(described earlier) and to create a wider oil layer on the pores of the pores, as well as very low mobility
of W/O emulsions, which may significantly reduce displacement efficiency of the alkaline solution and
its ability to move the remaining oil relative to the water-wet state. This result was also observed in
previous studies (Dong, Liu, and Li 2012). Finally, the oil recovery factor in this case was 50% for the
homogeneous model and 33% for the heterogeneous porous medium. Examination of the microscopic
images revealed that the formed emulsions were not observed in the model output, because they are
trapped in an oil-wet glass network and form part of the oil saturation remaining in the pattern. Also,
during flooding, complete wettability change occurs in many areas, and almost the entire wall of the oil
pores becomes oil-wet. This makes the oil layer created in the pores wider and reduces oil recovery in
oil-wet state at 50°C compared to water-wet state.
● Alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate at different temperatures showed
that relatively low temperatures are beneficial for alkaline flooding. When the temperature rises
to a certain value, the displacement efficiency decreases significantly.
● During NaOH flooding, the recovery rate increases from about 46% at ambient temperature to
69.7% at 50°C in the homogeneous model and from about 46% at ambient temperature to 64% at
Isolated
NaOH
solution
Residual oil
on pore wall
a b
Figure 15. Sodium hydroxide flooding in oil-wet state in A) heterogeneous B) homogeneous models at the temperature of 50°C.
4868 E. DARASH ET AL.
50°C in the heterogeneous model in water-wet state. While at higher temperatures (90°C), water
flooding has a better oil recovery than alkaline flooding.
● Changing the wettability to oil-wet condition, increasing interfacial tension, reducing alkalinity,
and producing less emulsion with increasing temperature reduced the ultimate oil recovery
during flooding of sodium hydroxide at high temperatures.
● Microscopic examinations at high temperatures at the pore scale showed that the emulsions are
subjected to a temperature gradient during the time interval between production and displace
ment in the reservoir, which makes it impossible to produce emulsion under reservoir
conditions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4891-340X
Arezou Jafari http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3850-3327
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