March 29, 2024
Shahriar Osfouri

Shahriar Osfouri

Academic Rank: Professor
Address:
Degree: Ph.D in Chemical Engineering
Phone: 88019360
Faculty: Faculty of Petroleum, Gas and Petrochemical Engineering

Research

Title Wettability alteration of calcite and dolomite carbonates using silica nanoparticles coated with fluorine groups
Type Article
Keywords
Journal JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
DOI
Researchers Arefeh Naghizadeh (First researcher) , Reza Azin (Second researcher) , Shahriar Osfouri (Third researcher) , Rouhollah Fatehi (Fourth researcher)

Abstract

Altering the wettability of a gas-liquid system from liquid-wetting to intermediate gas-wetting is a novel strategy for removing condensate from gas condensate reservoirs. In this paper, the role of a silica nanofluid modified by fluorine groups in the wettability alteration of seven carbonate samples was investigated. An acid test and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy analysis were carried out to identify the levels of calcite and dolomite as dominant carbonate minerals and evaluate the coating ability of the proposed chemical used on carbonate surfaces. Contact angle measurements and spontaneous imbibition experiments were conducted before and after wettability alteration. In addition, gas flooding experiments were conducted on three permeable core samples to investigate the effect of the nanofluid on the fluid flow at the core scale. Contact angle measurements demonstrated that the wetting tendency of core samples altered from liquid-wetting into gas-wetting after surface treatment, and a higher contact angle was achieved for carbonate cores with less dolomite than calcite. EDX analysis showed more fluorine and silica adsorption on calcite, compared to dolomite cores. After surface modification, the brine imbibed into carbonate core samples 1 to 7 decreased by 0.104, 0.174, 0.0016, 0.773, 0.355, 0.056, and 0.279, respectively. Core flooding results demonstrated that the recovery factor of three permeable core samples increased from 56.52%, 49.69%, and 65.33%–69.34%, 56.75%, and 76.72%, respectively.