Spontaneous imbibition experiments for enhanced oil recovery with silica nanosols

https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2024.03.02

Experimental oil displacement as a result of spontaneous imbibition of silica nanosols has been carried out using two types of sandstone as the reservoir rock. The permeability of the cores ranged from 0.34 to 333 mD, while the porosity was 11% and 22%, respectively. During the research, the influence of the concentration and nanoparticle size, as well as the permeability of the rock, on the process of spontaneous imbibition, was studied. Silica nanosols were considered as an object of study. The nanoparticle size ranged from 10 to 35 nm. The mass concentration of nanoparticles varied from 0.01% to 0.25%. It was found that the use of silica nanosols significantly increases the rate of the spontaneous imbibition process. It was established that a silica nanosol with a nanoparticle size of 10 nm and a concentration of 0.25% allows to displace more than six times oil compared to the reservoir water model in the same time. As a result, it was shown that the oil displacement efficiency and the efficiency of spontaneous imbibition increase along with an increase in the nanoparticle concentration and a decrease in the nanoparticle size.