Simulation of foam in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) applications

Doctoral thesis (2021)

Authors

X. Lyu Reservoir Engineering - CEG
Research Group
Reservoir Engineering (CEG) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2021 X. Lyu
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:127b6a6f-c947-4624-a72c-11f6539c41d7
Foam Numerical simulation Enhanced oil recovery Carbon capture and storage Gravity segregation Enhanced dissolution rate
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Published Date

2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Geoscience and Engineering

Research Group

Reservoir Engineering

Abstract

Foam is an agglomeration of gas bubbles separated from each other by thin liquid films. Foam injection has been proved to be an efficient way to increase sweep efficiency in gas-injection enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) processes or enlarge the storage space for trapping of CO2 in aquifers. Numerical simulation, an important tool developed by combining physics, mathematics, and computer programming, provides an efficient way to understand the complex fluid flow in subsurface reservoirs with applications to the evaluation of hydrocarbon recovery, energy efficiency, performance analysis, and various optimization problems. However, simulation of foam-related displacement in reservoirs is still an expensive process for conventional simulation due to the strongly nonlinear physics. In this dissertation, a newly developed numerical simulator, called Delft Advanced Research Terra Simulator (DARTS), is introduced to investigate the complicated flow behavior in porous media with the presence of foam.