Flooding behavior

F. B. Weng, A. Su, C. Y. ITsu, and C. Y. Lee. Study of water-flooding behavior in cathode channel of a transparent proton-exchange membrane fuel cell. Journal of Power Sources 157 (2006) 674—680. 

In order to improve the flooding behavior at the point where two pieces of monolith are stacked on each other, it was suggested [17] that short pieces of monoliths... 

Kyte, J.R., and Rapopart, LA. Linear Water Flood Behavior and End Effects in Water-Wet Porous Media", Trans. AIME (1958) 213,423-426. 

The LBM has been deployed for two-phase displacement simulations in the PEMFC gas diffusion layer and catalyst layer to study liquid water transport and flooding behavior. Owing to the complex microstructures characterized by significantly small pore size and small flow rate, the two-phase transport in the PEMFC porous structures exhibits the dominance of surface forces as compared to the gravity, viscous and... 

Turhan, A., Kim, S., Hatzell, M. Mench, M.M. Impact of channel wall hydrophobicity on through-plane water distribution and flooding behavior in a polymer electrolyte fuel-cell. Electrochim. Acta 55 (2010), pp. 2734-2745. 

Figure 6.15 Schematic of complex interactions among fuel cell design, material, and operational parameters that influence water distribution and flooding behavior. Flooding interactions and behavior...

The WAG process has been used extensively in the field, particularly in supercritical CO2 injection, with considerable success (22,157,158). However, a method to further reduce the viscosity of injected gas or supercritical fluid is desired. One means of increasing the viscosity of CO2 is through the use of supercritical C02-soluble polymers and other additives (159). The use of surfactants to form low mobihty foams or supercritical CO2 dispersions within the formation has received more attention (160—162). Foam has also been used to reduce mobihty of hydrocarbon gases and nitrogen. The behavior of foam in porous media has been the subject of extensive study (4). X-ray computerized tomographic analysis of core floods indicate that addition of 500 ppm of an alcohol ethoxyglycerylsulfonate increased volumetric sweep efficiency substantially over that obtained in a WAG process (156). 

Fire Hazards - Flash Point Not flammable but may cause fires upon contact with combustible materials Flammable Limits in Air (%) Not pertinent Fire Extinguishing Agents Flood with water, dry powder (e.g., graphite or powdered limestone) Fire Extinguishing Agents Not To Be Used Not pertinent Special Hazards of Combustion Products Not pertinent Behavior in Fire Can increase the intensity of fires Ignition Temperature Not pertinent Electrical Hazard Not pertinent Burning Rate Not pertinent. 

Micellar flooding is a promising tertiary oil-recovery method, perhaps the only method that has been shown to be successful in the field for depleted light oil reservoirs. As a tertiary recovery method, the micellar flooding process has desirable features of several chemical methods (e.g., miscible-type displacement) and is less susceptible to some of the drawbacks of chemical methods, such as adsorption. It has been shown that a suitable preflush can considerably curtail the surfactant loss to the rock matrix. In addition, the use of multiple micellar solutions, selected on the basis of phase behavior, can increase oil recovery with respect to the amount of surfactant, in comparison with a single solution. Laboratory tests showed that oil recovery-to-slug volume ratios as high as 15 can be achieved [439]. 

Most suitable for the examination of the surface is x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, whereas the wettability determination can be established by a detailed interpretation of core flooding experiments and wettability index measurements. The results of such studies show that the organic carbon content in the surface is well correlated with the wetting behavior of the material characterized by petrophysical measurements [1467,1468]. 

Wettability is defined as "the tendency of one fluid to spread on or adhere to a solid surface in the presence of other immiscible fluids" (145). Rock wettability can strongly affect its relative permeability to water and oil (145,172). Wettability can affect the initial distribution of fluids in a formation and their subsequent flow behavior. When rock is water-wet, water occupies most of the small flow channels and is in contact with most of the rock surfaces. The converse is true in oil-wet rock. When the rock surface does not have a strong preference for either water or oil, it is termed to be of intermediate or neutral wettability. Inadvertent alteration of rock wettability can strong alter its behavior in laboratory core floods (172). 

Surface Behavior. Most extraction processes deal with several phases. At the boundaries between these phases, an interface exists which can be populated with or depopulated of polymer. Situations in which the polymer should accumulate at the surface of one phase are 1. the flocculation of clays and fines or 2. the formation of foams, while situations in which the polymer should depopulate the surface of the phase boundary are 3 minimizing adsorption in mineral acid leaching or 4. minimizing surface tension with surfactants in oil recovery by miscible flooding.,... 

In the next run, a core pack was saturated with 8.6 cp (at 50° C) Ranger-zone crude oil and water flooded to residual oil saturation. Polymer flood was then initiated and about 1.2% of the original oil in place (OOIP) was recovered. The results are shown in Figure 4. The pressure profiles show behavior essentially similar to the previous run except that the pressure drop across the core increased to 100 psi within 4 PV of injection of polymer. The steady state values of pH and viscosity were 7.0 and 0.7 cp. respectively. The oil ganglia retained in larger pores resisting displacement probably reduced the amount of polymer adsorbed and reduced the number of pores that the polymer molecules needed to seal off in order to block the core. This could explain the more rapid plugging of the core. Effluent pH and viscosities remained much lower than influent values. 

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