A semi-analytical workflow to study dimethyl ether improved water flooding; a fractional flow study

A semi-analytical workflow to study dimethyl ether improved water flooding; a fractional flow study

This paper introduces a semi-analytical procedure to study fractional flow (f w ) and performance of dimethyl ether improved water flooding (DEW). To this end, the f w -curve of DME/water-oil is discussed and the effect of the K-value on the fractional flow and the oil recovery curve is studied. To...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Petroleum science and technology Vol. 40; no. 11; pp. 1318 - 1332
Main Authors: Soleimani, Pooria, Chahardowli, Mohammad, Simjoo, Mohammad
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 03-06-2022
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
DEW
Dimethyl ether
Finite difference method
Flooding
fractional flow
numerical model
Oil recovery
partition coefficient
Semi-analytical solution
Water flooding
Workflow
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Summary:This paper introduces a semi-analytical procedure to study fractional flow (f w ) and performance of dimethyl ether improved water flooding (DEW). To this end, the f w -curve of DME/water-oil is discussed and the effect of the K-value on the fractional flow and the oil recovery curve is studied. To achieve proper f w -curves, governing equations are solved using a finite difference approach, and saturation and concentrations are obtained in every time step. Therefore, numerous f w -curves are found; we select a DME-free and a DME-rich f w -curve. Then, an initial point, which is determined using the partition coefficient value (K-value), is chosen to plot a tangential line on the f w -curve. The intercept of the tangential line and the horizontal axis is named pseudo-adsorption point. Upon increase of K-value, the intercept moves toward the origin of the plot. Moreover, results show that with the increase of K-value, the DME-rich f w -curve moves to the right side, which makes a larger horizontal distance between DME-free and DME-rich f w -curves. In addition results indicate that at small K-values, the increase of K-value significantly improves oil recovery, but the further increase does not lead to significant recovery improvements. This workflow can be considered useful to analyze DME-improved water flooding in different conditions.
ISSN:1091-6466
1532-2459
DOI:10.1080/10916466.2021.2021942