Browsing by Subject "Polyacrylamide"
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Item A study of residence time distributions for polyacrylamide solutions flowing through porous media as applied to enhanced oil recovery(Texas Tech University, 1985-05) Martin, Roger IrwinThe overall objective of this research is to develop an accurate modeling of the axisymmetric flow of dilute polyacrylamide polymer solutions through consolidated porous media via a generation of residence time distribution curves.Item Investigation of flow streamlines of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide solutions through cylindrical porous media(Texas Tech University, 1984-05) Baumgarten, Gary ANot availableItem PH sensitive polymers for novel conformance control and polymer flooding applications(2008-08) Choi, Suk Kyoon, 1970-; Sharma, Mukul M.; Bryant, Steven L.; Huh, ChunPolymer flooding is a commercially proven technology to enhance oil recovery from mature reservoirs. The main mechanism for improving oil recovery is to increase the viscosity of injection water by adding polymer, thereby creating a favorable mobility ratio for improved volumetric sweep efficiency. However, polymer injection brings on several potential problems: a) a high injection pressure with associated pumping cost; b) creation of unwanted injection well fractures; and c) mechanical degradation of polymers due to high shear near wellbore. The high viscosity of polymer solutions and permeability reduction by polymer retention reduce mobility, and simultaneously increase the pressure drop required for the propagation of the polymer bank. The objective of this dissertation is to develop an improved polymer injection process that can minimize the impact of those potential problems in the polymer flooding process, and to extend this application to conformance control. This objective is accomplished by utilizing the pH sensitivity of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), which is the most commonly used EOR polymer. The idea of the “low-pH polymer process” is to inject HPAM solution at low-pH conditions into the reservoir. The polymer viscosity is low in that condition, which enables the polymer solution to pass through the near wellbore region with a relatively low pressure drop. This process can save a considerable amount of pump horse power required during injection, and also enables the use of large-molecular-weight polymers without danger of mechanical degradation while injecting below the fracture gradient. Away from the near wellbore region, the polymer solution becomes thickened with an increase in pH, which occurs naturally by a spontaneous reaction between the acid solution and rock minerals. The viscosity increase lowers the brine mobility and increases oil displacement efficiency, as intended. Another potential application of the low-pH polymer injection process is conformance control in a highly heterogeneous reservoir. As a secondary recovery method, water flooding can sweep most oil from the high-permeability zones, but not from the low-permeability zones. The polymer solution under low-pH conditions can be placed deep into such high-permeability sands preferentially, because of its low viscosity. It is then viscosified by a pH increase, caused by geochemical reactions with the rock minerals in the reservoir. With the thickened polymer solution in the high permeability sands, the subsequently injected water is diverted to the low permeability zone, so that the bypassed oil trapped in that zone can be efficiently recovered. To evaluate the low-pH polymer process, extensive laboratory experiments were systematically conducted. As the first step, the rheological properties of HPAM solutions, such as steady-shear viscosity and viscoelastic behavior, were measured as functions of pH. The effects of various process variables, such as polymer concentrations, salinity, polymer molecular weight, and degree of hydrolysis on rheological properties, were investigated for a wide range of pH. A comprehensive rheological model for HPAM solutions was also developed in order to provide polymer viscosity in terms of the above process variables. As the second step, weak acid (citric acid) and strong acid (hydrochloric acid) were evaluated as pH control agents. Citric acid was shown to clearly perform better than hydrochloric acid. A series of acid coreflood experiments for different process variables (injection pH, core length, flow rate, and the presence of shut-ins) were carried out. The effluent pH and five cations (total Ca, Mg, Fe, Al, and K) were measured for qualitative evaluation of the geochemical reactions between the injected acid and the rock minerals; these measurements also provide data for future history matching simulations to accurately characterize these geochemical reactions. Finally, polymer coreflood experiments were carried out with different process variables: injection pH, polymer concentration, polymer molecular weight, salinity, degree of hydrolysis, and flow rate. The transport characteristics of HPAM solutions in Berea sandstone cores were evaluated in terms of permeability reduction and mobility reduction. Adsorption and inaccessible/excluded pore volume were also measured in order to accurately characterize the transport of HPAM solutions under low-pH conditions. The results show that the proposed “low-pH polymer process” can substantially increase injectivity (lower injection pressures) and allow deeper transport of polymer solutions in the reservoir due to the low solution viscosity. The peak pH’s observed in several shut-ins guarantee that spontaneous geochemical reactions can return the polymer solution to its original high viscosity. However, low-pH conditions increase adsorption (polymer-loss) and require additional chemical cost (for citric acid). The optimum injection formulation (polymer concentration, injection pH) will depend on the specific reservoir mineralogy, permeability, salinity and injection conditions.Item Reducing turbidity of construction site runoff via coagulation with polyacrylamide and chitosan(2012-05) Rounce, David Robert; Lawler, Desmond F.; Barrett, Michael E.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of developing a nationwide standard for turbidity in construction site runoff. It is widely expected that this standard cannot be met with conventional erosion and sediment control measures; consequently, innovative practices for managing sediment on construction sites must be developed. The objective of this research was to develop an understanding of how soil characteristics and polymer properties affect the amount of turbidity reduction that can be achieved through flocculation. The polymers used were PAMs, a proprietary product, and chitosan. The charge density of the PAMs ranged from 0% to 50% and the molecular weights ranged from 0.2 to 14 Mg/mol. A protocol for creating modified synthetic stormwater runoff for soil samples was developed and used on soils from seven construction sites. Particle size distributions were used to compare the modified synthetic stormwater runoff with grab samples of stormwater from one site and showed the synthetic runoff was representative of the actual runoff. Flocculation tests were performed on the synthetic runoffs with PAM and chitosan doses from 0.03 to 10 mg/L. The non-ionic PAM, proprietary product, and chitosan were found to be the most effective at reducing the turbidity of all the synthetic runoff below 200 NTU. The high molecular weight anionic PAMs were effective on only two of the seven synthetic runoff samples. Hardness tests were performed indicating interparticle bridging to be the bonding mechanism of the PAM. Electrophoretic mobility tests were performed on two of the soil suspensions and indicated the bonding mechanism of PAM to be interparticle bridging, and the bonding mechanism of chitosan to be a combination of charge neutralization and interparticle bridging. Tests showed as the charge density of the PAM increased, their effectiveness decreased.Item Stability of polymers used for enhanced oil recovery(2010-05) Slaughter, Will Sherman, 1980-; Pope, Gary A.; Mohanty, Kishore K.The purpose of this work was to study polymer degradation mechanisms as well as ways to mitigate it. In the area of chemical stability, defined as divalent cation tolerance of acrylic polymers as hydrolysis increases, use of the n-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) monomer helps to preserve viscosity and tolerate higher calcium concentrations over those polymers without NVP. Also, ethylenediaminetetraacetate tetrasodium salt (EDTA-Na+4) is shown to sequester calcium ions at alkaline conditions (pH>10) and, in the case of lab-aged post-hydrolyzed poly(AM-co-AMPS), helps to retain full viscosity at all calcium concentrations when EDTA is present at a stoichiometric equivalence of calcium. Many discrepancies exist in the literature concerning the presence or absence of degradation under various field or laboratory conditions. Carbonate and bicarbonate, which are typically present in natural waters but often neglected in lab-prepared brines, prove to be a hidden variable in resolving why Shupe (1981) saw no loss in viscosity when sodium dithionite was added to polymer in the presence of oxygen (with bicarbonates) but others (Knight, 1973 and Levitt and Pope, 2008) observed severe degradation under similar conditions (but without bicarbonates). A commercial HPAM polymer (Flopaam 3630S) has been shown to be stable in the presence of ferrous iron in the absence of oxygen, clarifying an apparent discrepancy in the literature between the results of Yang and Treiber (1985) and Kheradmand (1987). Dissolved oxygen (DO) levels, and not redox potential (ORP) measurements, are often reported in polymer stability research on oxidative degradation. ORP is shown to be a better measure of the onset of degradation because oxygen is initially being consumed and may not appear until substantial degradation has occurred. Although generally believed to be a detriment to polymer stability in the field, aeration of iron-laden source water prior to hydration of polymer may be beneficial in certain cases where exposure to air in unavoidable. Also, a novel process of safely producing sodium dithionite in the field proves to perform better in terms of long-term polymer stability in anaerobic conditions than the traditional method of using a solution made from powder dithionite. Finally, a pre-sheared 5 million Dalton HPAM is successfully injected into a 3 mD carbonate reservoir core plug. Remarkably, permeability reduction factors remain at values close to unity. However, pressure data from ASP tertiary corefloods suggest that polymer is not feasible for field injections.