Evaluation of the Salinity Gradient Concept in Surfactant Flooding

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Abstract
Salinity design goals are to keep as much surfactant as possible in the active region and to minimize surfactant retention. Achieving these is complicated because (1) compositions change as a result of dispersion, chromatographic separation of components distributed among two or more phases, and retention by adsorption onto rock and/or absorption in a trapped phase; (2) in the presence of divalent ions, optimal salinity is not constant but a function of surfactant concentration and calcium/sodium ratio; and (3) the changing composition of a system strongly influences transport of the components. A one-dimensional (1D) six-component finite-difference simulator was used to compare a salinity gradient design with a constant salinity design. Numerical dispersion was used to evaluate the effects of dispersive mixing. These simulations show that, with a salinity gradient, change of phase behavior with salinity can be used to advantage both to keep surfactant in the active region and to minimize retention. By contrast, under some conditions with a constant salinity design, it is possible to have early surfactant breakthrough and/or large surfactant retention. Other experiments conducted showed that high salinity does retard surfactant, and, if the drive has high salinity, a great amount of surfactant retention can result. The design that produced the best recovery had the waterflood brine overoptimum and the drive underoptimum; the peak surfactant concentration occurred in the active region and oil production ceased at the same point.

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