TY - JOUR
T1 - Combined microfluidics–confocal Raman microscopy platform for studying enhanced oil recovery mechanisms
AU - Gao, Jun
AU - Nair, Sachin
AU - Duits, Michel H.G.
AU - Otto, Cees
AU - Mugele, Frieder
N1 - Wiley deal
PY - 2019/7/1
Y1 - 2019/7/1
N2 -
To study the mechanism of enhanced oil recovery, it is important to characterize the three-dimensional spatial distribution of various chemical species, especially water and oil, and their evolution during the course of water flooding. For example, visualizing the (selective) removal of oil from clay or silica substrates by low salinity water can yield important insights. Here, we present a platform that uses a microfluidic device (to represent water flooding at the pore scale) in combination with confocal Raman microscopy. Distributions of oil, water, and minerals are resolved at submicrometer resolution upon flooding water with changing composition. Using glass and gibbsite to mimic sandstone and clay, and water containing divalent cations (Ca
2+
), we find that oil containing a fatty acid preferentially adsorbs on the gibbsite. Removal of the divalent cations leads to release of the oil droplet. This finding is consistent with the multiple ion exchange mechanism and underlines that the presence of clay is important for low salinity enhanced oil recovery. We expect that our platform will pave the road towards systematic screening of water flood compositions in more complex systems.
AB -
To study the mechanism of enhanced oil recovery, it is important to characterize the three-dimensional spatial distribution of various chemical species, especially water and oil, and their evolution during the course of water flooding. For example, visualizing the (selective) removal of oil from clay or silica substrates by low salinity water can yield important insights. Here, we present a platform that uses a microfluidic device (to represent water flooding at the pore scale) in combination with confocal Raman microscopy. Distributions of oil, water, and minerals are resolved at submicrometer resolution upon flooding water with changing composition. Using glass and gibbsite to mimic sandstone and clay, and water containing divalent cations (Ca
2+
), we find that oil containing a fatty acid preferentially adsorbs on the gibbsite. Removal of the divalent cations leads to release of the oil droplet. This finding is consistent with the multiple ion exchange mechanism and underlines that the presence of clay is important for low salinity enhanced oil recovery. We expect that our platform will pave the road towards systematic screening of water flood compositions in more complex systems.
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
KW - Enhanced oil recovery
KW - Low salinity
KW - Microfluidics
KW - Confocal Raman microscopy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063684283&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jrs.5601
DO - 10.1002/jrs.5601
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063684283
SN - 0377-0486
VL - 50
SP - 996
EP - 1007
JO - Journal of raman spectroscopy
JF - Journal of raman spectroscopy
IS - 7
ER -