Real Time Synchrotron-Based X-ray Computed Tomography for Alkaline Surfactant Flooding — ICTMS Committee Dep of Applied Maths Australian National University

Real Time Synchrotron-Based X-ray Computed Tomography for Alkaline Surfactant Flooding (84)

Yara A Alzahid 1 , James McClure 2 , Cheng Chen 3 , Peyman Mostaghimi 1 , Chenhao Sun 1 , Ryan T Armstrong 1
  1. The University of New South Wales, KENSINGTON, NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia
  2. Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
  3. Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

We utilize the fast Synchrotron-based X-ray CT at the Argonne National Lab to image the pore-scale processes that occur during alkaline surfactant (AS) flooding. We hypothesized that salinity plays a pivotal role in AS flooding. Under optimum and optimum surfactant salinities were injected in a carbonate rock and imaged. We report the differences in pore-scale flow mechanisms and oil recovery that occur in these floods.

 

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