Response Surface Design for Estimating the Optimal Operating Conditions in the Polymer Flooding Process

• Published in: Energy sources. Part A, Recovery, utilization, and environmental effects Vol. 37; no. 9; pp. 1012 - 1022
• Main Authors: Nguyen, H. X., Bae, W., Tran, X. V., Permadi, A. K., Taemoon, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 03-05-2015
• Subjects: enhanced oil recovery; HPAM; net present value; optimization; polymer flooding; response surface methodology
• ISSN: 1556-7036; 1556-7230
• DOI: 10.1080/15567036.2011.580331

The objective of this study is to apply experimental design for sensitivity investigation and determination of the optimum condition of operating variables in enhanced oil recovery by polymer flooding. These experiments were designed consisting of 14 cases by the D-optimal design. The maximum net present value is obtained at $244.94 mm, in which an optimum operating variable is injected at a polymer concentration of 1,780 ppm and slug size of 2.6 mlb under reservoir conditions. This study successfully applied optimal operating parameters in a polymer flood, which is an economical way of obtaining the maximum profit in a short period of time and with the fewest number of experiments.