Pore-to-Core EOR Upscaling for CO2 Foam for CCUS

Abstract

Summary This paper presents an ongoing CO2–foam upscaling research project that aims to advance CO2–foam technology for accelerating and increasing oil recovery, while reducing operational costs and lessening the carbon footprint left during CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Laboratory CO2–foam behavior was upscaled to pilot scale in an onshore carbonate reservoir in Texas, USA. Important CO2–foam properties, such as local foam generation, bubble texture, apparent viscosity, and shear–thinning behavior with a nonionic surfactant, were evaluated using pore–to–core upscaling to develop accurate numerical tools for a field–pilot prediction of increased sweep efficiency and CO2 utilization. At pore–scale, high–pressure silicon–wafer micromodels showed in–situ foam generation and stable liquid films over time during no–flow conditions. Intrapore foam bubbles corroborated high apparent foam viscosities measured at core scale. CO2–foam apparent viscosity was measured at different rates (foam–rate scans) and different gas fractions (foam–quality scans) at core scale. The highest mobility reduction (foam apparent viscosity) was observed between 0.60 and 0.70 gas fractions. The maximum foam apparent viscosity was 44.3 (±0.5) mPa·s, 600 times higher than that of pure CO2, compared with the baseline viscosity (reference case, without surfactant), which was 1.7 (±0.6) mPa·s, measured at identical conditions. The CO2–foam showed shear–thinning behavior with approximately 50% reduction in apparent viscosity when the superficial velocity was increased from 1 to 8 ft/D. Strong foam was generated in EOR corefloods at a gas fraction of 0.70, resulting in an apparent viscosity of 39.1 mPa·s. Foam parameters derived from core–scale foam floods were used for numerical upscaling and field–pilot performance assessment.