A Novel Technique to Estimate Water Saturation and Capillary Pressure of Foam in Model Fractures

Foam is applied in enhanced oil recovery to improve the sweep of injected gas and increase oil recovery, by greatly reducing the mobility of gas. In the laboratory, X-ray computed tomography is commonly used to evaluate the performance of foam in core plugs. However, foam properties, such as bubble size and capillary pressure, are much more...

Effects of Gas Trapping on Foam Mobility in a Model Fracture

In enhanced oil recovery, foam can effectively mitigate conformance problems and maintain a stable displacement front, by trapping gas and reducing its relative permeability in situ. In this study, to understand gas trapping in fractures and how it affects foam behavior, we report foam experiments in a 1-m-long glass model fracture with a...

An Investigation of the Effect of Gravity on Foam in Model Fractures

Gas-injection EOR processes have poor sweep efficiency due to conformance problems including channelling, gravity override and fingering. In naturally fractured reservoirs, sweep efficiency is further jeopardized, because gas breaks through fractures first, leaving most oil behind in the matrix. Strong foam can be created in fractures[1][2],...

Foam Trapping and Foam Mobility in a Model Fracture

Gas injection often suffers from the poor sweep efficiency because of conformance problems, including gravity override, viscous fingering and channelling, as gas has a lighter density and a lower viscosity compared to in-situ fluids. Foam, by encapsulating the gas into separate bubbles in surfactant-contained liquid thin films (lamella), can...

The Effects of Oil on CO2 Foam Flooding under Miscible Conditions

Miscible gas injection, as an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) method, can improve the recovery factor by swelling the residual oil and phasing out the interfacial tension. However, the sweep efficiency of miscible gas injection is not satisfactory because of conformance problems, such as viscous fingering, channelling and gravity override. Foam can...