Experimental investigation of immiscible supercritical carbon dioxide foam rheology for improved oil recovery

Abstract

This paper presents the rheological behaviour of supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) foam at reservoir conditions of 1 500 psi and 80 °C. Different commercial surfactants were screened and utilized in order to generate a fairly stable CO₂ foam. Mixed surfactant system was also introduced to generate strong foam. Foam rheology was studied for some specific foam qualities using a high pressure high temperature (HPHT) foam loop rheometer. A typical shear thinning behaviour of the foam was observed and a significant increase in the foam viscosity was noticed with the increase of foam quality until 85%. A desired high apparent viscosity with coarse texture was found at 85% foam quality. Foam visualization above 85% showed an unstable foam due to extremely thin lamella which collapsed and totally disappeared in the loop rheometer. Below 52%, a non-homogenous and unstable foam was found having low viscosity with some liquid accumulation at the bottom of the circulation loop. This research has demonstrated rheology of sCO₂ foams at different qualities at HPHT to obtain optimal foam quality region for immiscible CO₂ foam co-injection process.

Keywords

supercritical CO₂ foam / apparent viscosity / foam quality / foam stability

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