A Study of Silica Nanoparticles for Enhanced Oil Recovery
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The aim of this research was to study the mechanism of nanoparticle-enhanced oil recovery. The recently-proposed theory of structural disjoining force which can detach the oil from a substrate was investigated through Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM). The distribution of silica nanoparticles in oil/water/solid systems was imaged and the results showed that silica nanoparticles tend to concentrate in the film wedge of the water/oil/solid interface. In addition, the comparison of the images of distribution of 38 nm and 148 nm silica nanoparticles indicated that smaller-sized silica nanoparticles impart a larger structural disjoining force, which favors the detachment of oil from the substrate. In addition, it can be seen from the trapping mechanism of the Pore Doublet Model and Snap-off Model that interfacial tension and rock wettability are two key parameters in determining the final oil recovery. The effect of nanoparticles on interfacial tension and rock wettability in traditional trapping theory was also investigated. Contact angle measurement was conducted both on quartz plates and on calcite crystals. Interfacial tension of n-decane and nanofluid with different compositions was measured. The measurements on quartz plates had relatively large uncertainty while those on calcite crystal showed a clear trend that the addition of silica nanoparticles can reduce the contact angle and the smaller the nanoparticle sizes, the smaller the contact angle. Besides, an increase in the concentration of nanofluid favors the reduction of contact angle. What is more, according to the current measurement data of interfacial tension, it seems that addition of nanoparticles has almost no influence on interfacial tension.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Jiang, Renfeng |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Horne, Roland N. |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Energy Resources Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Jiang, Renfeng. (2016). A Study of Silica Nanoparticles for Enhanced Oil Recovery. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/jy189qp0098
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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