Nanotechnology Application in Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: Current Opinion and Recent Advances

Abstract

Chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has been adjudged as an efficient oil recovery technique to recover bypassed oil and residual oil trapped in the reservoir. This EOR method relies on the injection of chemicals to boost oil recovery. Recently, due to the limitations of the application of chemical EOR methods to reservoirs having elevated temperatures and high salinity and hardness concentra-tions, nanotechnology have been applied to enhance its efficiency and improve oil productivity. The synergistic combination of nanoparticles and conventional EOR chemicals has opened new routes for the synthesis and application of novel materials with sterling and fascinating properties. In this chapter, an up-to-date synopsis of nanotechnology applications in chemical EOR is discussed. A detailed explana-tion of the mechanism and applications of these novel methods for oil recovery are appraised and analyzed. Finally, experimental and laboratory results were outlined. This overview presents extensive information about new frontiers in chemical EOR applications for sustainable energy production. studies were summarized and discussed. Results of various experiments shows that the incorporation of nanotechnology with chemical EOR shows good potential to improve pore scale mechanisms in the case of surfactant. Adsorption of surfactant on rock pores is inhibited while greater IFT reduction and better wettability alteration were achieved. Furthermore, nanotechnology improved the rheological properties of polymer and stability of emulsions and foams indicating the good potentials of improving sweep efficiency of injected chemicals especially in the presence of harsh reservoir conditions. Finally, future research should focus on modeling the flow behavior of nanomaterials through porous media, which is required for the designing and field implementation of nano-chemicals EOR.