Effects of Foam Quality and Flow Rate on CO2-Foam Behavior at Reservoir Temperature and Pressure

Abstract

Summary This paper reports a series of steady-state CO2-foam flow experiments performed at reservoir conditions of 101° F and 2100 psig. Three flow rates (total injection rates), 4.2, 8.4, and 16.8cm3/h, and five foam qualities, 20%, 33.3%, 50%, 66.7%, and 80%, were used to study how flow rate and foam quality affect foam mobility. Results from these experiments show that foam mobility (total mobility of CO2/surfactant solution) increases with increasing flow rate and foam resistance factor decreases with increasing flow rate. Results also show that foam mobility decreases with increasing foam quality. Foam resistance factor increases with increasing foam quality ranging from 33.3% to 80%; there appears to be a minimum foam resistance factor between foam qualities of 20% and 33.3%.