Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49

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Fuel
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Full Length Article

Modeling preformed particle gel surfactant combined flooding

for enhanced oil recovery after polymer flooding
Xianchao Chen a,⇑, Qihong Feng b, Wei Liu a, Kamy Sepehrnoori c
a
College of Energy Resources, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China
b
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, China
c
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

h i g h l i g h t s

A mechanistic model for PPG/surfactant/polymer combined flooding was proposed.

The interaction between PPG and surfactant was mathematically described.

The newly presented model was validated with core flooding cases.

Two pilots from China fields were used to verify the coupled model.

The sensitivity of different parameters to the recovery factor was discussed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Preformed Particle Gel (PPG) surfactant combined flooding, designed to simultaneously improve the
Received 10 August 2016 sweep efficiency and displacement efficiency, has emerged as a promising Enhanced Oil Recovery
Received in revised form 18 November 2016 (EOR) method after polymer flooding. The fundamental mechanisms have been investigated by many
Accepted 21 December 2016
lab experiments and the feasibility has been evaluated by some field applications. However, there is
no model that can handle this combined EOR process. In this paper, a mechanistic model is proposed
to predict the EOR performance after polymer flooding. This new coupled model incorporates the surfac-
Keywords:
tant transport module into the model of PPG treatment after polymer flooding. Especially, the interaction
Preformed particle gel
Surfactant
mechanisms between PPG and surfactant are mathematically described according to the lab experiments.
Enhanced oil recovery An implicit pressure explicit composition method is adopted to numerically solve the coupled model. The
After polymer flooding newly presented model is firstly validated with a commercial simulator and some core flooding experi-
Numerical simulation ments. Then, the verified model is employed to predict the performance for actual field pilot cases.
Parameters analysis is conducted on a conceptual model for PPG conformance control after polymer
flooding. The results show that the coupled model provides an efficient and accurate method for predict-
ing PPG-surfactant flooding performance after polymer flooding, which aids to determine the technical
feasibility of the field project.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction alternative mitigation activity in many mature oilfields. There are

With the decline in new oil discoveries in recent years, the EOR
technology is a good approach to meet the energy demand in years
to come. The increasing energy demand and the high oil price
greatly spur the EOR field applications all around the world. Cur-
rent total world oil production from EOR is approaching 3 MMBD
representing about 3.5% of the daily global oil production [1]. As
a great promising method, chemical EOR is becoming an
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chenxianchao2005@126.com (X. Chen).
three main EOR mechanisms for chemical flooding: (1) increasing
the capillary number to mobilize residual oil; (2) decreasing the
mobility ratio for better sweep; (3) emulsification of oil to facilitate
production. Chemical EOR methods have shown an increase in oil
recovery in pilot tests and a few large field implementations [2].
China is the country with the largest oil production from Chemical
EOR projects which mainly comes from polymer flooding. The high
molecular polyacrylamide dissolved in water significantly increase
water viscosity to decrease the mobility ratio and thus increase the
sweep efficiency in the reservoir. Polymer flooding alone con-
tributed more than 10 million tons of oil in 2006 in Daqing oil field

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2016.12.075
0016-2361/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 X. Chen et al. / Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49
Nomenclature
b1 , b2 , b3 parameters for surfactant concentration change
B formation volume factor
c mass concentration, mg/L
CMC critical micelles concentration, mg/L
^c adsorption mass concentration of unit formation rock
d diffusion factor
d1 , d2 , d3 parameters for pressure gradient threshold
D depth, m
e1 , e2 IFT parameters for surfactant/PPG
F inaccessible pore volume factor, dimensionless
PPGsol solubility of PPG, fraction
gradp pressure gradient, MPa/m
IFT interfacial tension, mN/m
K permeability, mD
Kr relative permeability, mD
P pressure, MPa
q volumetric flow, m3/s
Rs dissolved gas oil ratio
Rp generation or consumption mass concentration rate
S saturation, fraction
SHR shear breaking ratio
SWR swelling ratio in polymer solution
[3]. The second largest field wide polymer flooding application in
China is in the Shengli oil field in the Bohai Bay area. In addition,
polymer flooding is gaining interest for heavy crude oil reservoirs
and offshore fields. The combination of conformance control tech-
nologies (gel treatments) to improve injection profile and sweep
efficiency after polymer flooding shows promise in some China
projects [4].
Although polymer flooding has achieved industrial application
in China, the EOR potential is sometimes very limited in actual field
performance. Still half the oil reserve remains in the reservoir after
polymer flooding because of severe reservoir heterogeneity, imma-
ture well pattern and high temperature high salinity [5]. The prob-
lems with polymer flooding result from limited sweep efficiency
improvement and little oil displacement efficiency. Hence, the
techniques proposed for EOR after polymer flooding should con-
sider the two fundamental starting points. Improving the sweep
efficiency (also known as conformance control) is the prerequisite
for enhancing oil recovery after polymer flooding. Polymer micro
gels, including colloid dispersed gel, preformed particle gel (also
called gel microsphere), bright water and pH sensitive cross-
linked polymers, are the most widely used agents for chemical
conformance control [6].
Preformed Particle Gel (PPG) is a kind of effective polymer gel to
improve sweep efficiency. Its gelling process takes place on surface
and it can overcome some drawbacks inherent in the in-situ gel
systems [7]. Its main mitigation mechanisms in porous media
and influencing parameters were explored by conducting many
lab experiments [8]. Sand-packed flow experiments are employed
to investigate the PPG plugging deposition mechanisms and the
permeability variation owing to PPG retention [9]. Some field and
lab experience with PPG conformance control was analyzed for a
water flooding field [10]. Furthermore, it can also reutilize the
polymer remaining in the reservoir, and it can be used for confor-
mance control after polymer flooding. A series of lab experiments
were conducted to study the main interaction mechanisms for
PPG profile control after polymer flooding [11].
Surfactant is the most efficient agent to enhance displacement
efficiency. Adding surfactant in injected solution will decrease
the oil-water interfacial tension (IFT). The capillary number will
43
t time, days
v flow velocity, m/s
Greek symbols
d retention
/ porosity, fraction
U diameter, m
qR rock density, kg/m3
c gravity
l fluid viscosity, mPas
r gradient
Subscripts
g gas
ppg preformed particle gel
o oil
p polymer
surf surfactant
w water
increase when the IFT decreases, which will lead to a large reduc-
tion in residual oil saturation [12]. The wettability of rocks are
improved to allow water to be better absorbed into the pores with
oil, which results in faster water moving and more oil displaced.
Surfactants are widely used combined with other chemical EOR
methods, such as SP flooding or ASP flooding. Surfactant can also
be implemented with conformance control method such as PPG
treatment to enhanced oil recovery after polymer flooding [13].
The PPG slug is firstly injected to block the high permeability zone
or thief zone after polymer flooding, which improves the sweep
efficiency. Then the surfactant slug is injected to displace the
remaining oil, which improves the displacement efficiency. The
PPG-surfactant can not only be employed in sandstone reservoirs
[14], it can also be adopted in carbonate reservoirs [15]. The inter-
action between PPG and surfactant was also investigated by an
experiments study to evaluate the EOR potential [15]. Some phys-
ical properties of PPG, such as PPG dynamics, will be changed as it
encounters with surfactant. Some physical properties of surfactant
will also be changed correspondingly [16].
To optimize a field development plan, numerical simulation is
needed for the PPG-surfactant hybrid EOR project plan. To the
authors’ knowledge, some researchers have proposed some basic
models. A simple conceptual model was established for PPG migra-
tion in water flooding reservoir [17]. A PPG model was established
based on laboratory experiments to study excess water manage-
ment [18]. This model takes the water relative permeability
decrease by considering gel strength, permeability and flow rate.
A one-dimensional experiment data driven filtration model was
presented to describe the interaction between PPG and remaining
polymer [19]. This model was later extended to a three-
dimensional model for PPG conformance control optimization after
polymer flooding [11]. Recently, a preliminary PPG-surfactant
model has been developed for hybrid EOR after polymer flooding,
and the interaction between PPG and surfactant was firstly math-
ematically described [20]. The PPG-surfactant mathematical model
in this paper is mainly inherited from this model. This paper is a
following study, which enhances the development of the theory
and further validates the model and presents field applications
simulation study.
44 X. Chen et al. / Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49

This paper is organized as following: firstly, a mechanistic cou- flowing equation is given as following [22], which is used to solve
pled model is developed based on polymer flooding model, surfac- the surfactant concentration csurf
tant flooding model and PPG migration model, which considers the
 
KK rw @Pw @D
comprehensive interaction mechanisms between PPG and poly- r  csurf r  cw þ r  ½dsurf /Sw rcsurf  þ qw csurf
lw Bw @x @x
mer/surfactant. Then, the coupled model is validated with an
industry simulator and several core flooding experiments to verify @ð/Sw csurf Þ @½F surf qR ð1  /Þ^csurf 
¼ þ ð5Þ
each module. Finally, we apply the newly built model to predict @t @t
actual field cases and point out the implications of this model for Some surfactant physical properties, such as adsorption, rela-
future hybrid EOR project application. tive permeability change and capillary pressure alteration are
included in this simple surfactant module. Surfactant flooding
2. Modeling model can also be modified to simulate surfactant gas EOR meth-
ods by adding gas migration equation like surfactant-alternating-
2.1. Polymer flooding model gas (SAG) processes for mobility control [23]. Here surfactant
flooding is acting as surfactant module for the following PPG
The main EOR mechanism of polymer flooding is that the dis- surfactant hybrid EOR process simulation.
placing water viscosity is enhanced by adding polymer and the
sweep efficiency is improved as less viscous fingering. The migra- 2.3. PPG migration model
tion of polymer in porous media is assumed to have no influence
on hydrocarbon flow. Hence, the polymer flow model is built on PPG is also seen as a component in water phase and its migra-
the base of standard black-oil equations, which solves the satura- tion model is written as [19], in which cppg is the PPG concentration
tion (Sw ) and pressure (P w ) of water as well as those of oil and gas. in water phase and dppg is the PPG retention in porous media.


 @dppg @ð/Sw cppg Þ
KK ro @ /So r  ðv w rcppg Þ þ qw cppg ¼ þ ð6Þ
r ðrPo  cog rDÞ þ qo ¼ ð1Þ @t @t
lo B o @t Bo
The retention of PPG in porous media will lead to porosity


 decrease, hence the porosity changes to
KK rw @ /Sw
r ðrPw  cw rDÞ þ qw ¼ ð2Þ
lw B w @t Bw / ¼ /0  d0ppg ð7Þ
" # The porosity variation will correspondingly change the perme-
KK ro KK rg ability and a power law formation damage equation is employed
r  Rs ðrP o  cog rDÞ þ ðrP g  cg rDÞ þ Rs qo þ qg
lo Bo lg Bg to predict the changed permeability [24]

    3
@ /So Rs /Sg K
¼ þ ð3Þ ¼
/
ð8Þ
@t Bo Bg K0 /0
The flow of polymer is assumed to act as a component dissolved The physicochemical mechanisms of PPG, such as water viscos-
in water phase, which is called polymer concentration in water ity increment, shearing breaking and deformation migration, are
(cp ). According to material balance principle, the polymer flow also included in this model. These properties equations are devised
model can be written as following [21] based on the experiments observed results [11]. This model is then

  used to combine with polymer flooding model and surfactant
KK rw @Pw @D
r  cp r  cw þ r  ½dp /Sw rci  þ /Sw Rp þ qw cp flooding model to simulate the hybrid EOR process.
lw Bw @x @x
@ð/Sw cp Þ @½F p qR ð1  /Þ^cp 
q¼ þ ð4Þ 2.4. Interaction model
@t @t
The above equation also considers the polymer diffusion (dp is
2.4.1. Interaction between PPG and polymer
diffusion factor) and polymer regeneration or consumption (Rp is
According to the results of experiments, the cationic PPG will
regeneration or consumption rate). Polymer flooding has some
absorb anionic polymers onto its surface by electronically coupling
important physical properties, such as viscosity enhancement,
effect, which increases the apparent volume of PPG. This synergy
adsorption (^cp is adsorption concentration) and inaccessible pore
effect between PPG and polymer has a threshold value when the
volume (IPV, F p is IPV factor). Here, these equations are not listed
polymer concentration is large enough [11]. Here, a swelling
in this paper and the interaction between polymer and PPG is parameter SWRppg is adopted to describe this synergy effect. The
emphasized for simplification. Polymer flooding model can also
sizes of PPG after swelling in polymer can be written as
be modified to simulate polymer gel by adding gel migration equa-
tion and gel dynamic equations [21]. Here polymer flooding is act- U0ppg ¼ Uppg  SWRppg ð9Þ
ing as polymer module for the following PPG polymer hybrid EOR
process simulation.
2.4.2. Interaction between PPG and surfactant
Some main mechanisms between PPG and surfactant should be
2.2. Surfactant flooding model accounted for in the hybrid EOR process. When the surfactant con-
centration is less than the critical micelles concentration (CMC),
The main EOR mechanism of surfactant is that the residual oil the surfactant will diffuse into the PPG [15]. Compared with the
saturation is reduced by adding surfactant and the displacement original surfactant concentration (csurf0), the surfactant concentra-
efficiency is boosted. To fully mimic the detail chemistry of surfac- tion change is given as
tant solution is very time consuming and a simplified surfactant (
module is adopted by considering the most important features. csurf 0 ðb1 cppg þ b2 c2ppg þ b3 c3ppg Þ csurf < CMC
Dcsurf ¼ ð10Þ
Similarly, surfactant is also taken as a solution component in aque- csurf 0 csurf P CMC
ous phase. Similar to polymer flooding equation, the surfactant
 X. Chen et al. / Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49 45

When the surfactant concentration is higher than the CMC, the

micelles will adsorb on the surface of PPG [16], which will lead to a
much smaller gradient threshold pressure than the original
gradient threshold pressure (gradpppg0). An empirical correlation
between the PPG gradient threshold pressure and surfactant con-
centration is proposed as
(
gradpppg0 ed1 csurf þd2 csurf > CMC
gradpppg ¼ ð11Þ
gradpppg0 ð1  d3 csurf Þ csurf < CMC

By adding PPG to surfactant solution, the oil/water IFT is a little

higher than the original system but still in the range of ultra-low
IFT range [14]. This dynamic IFT can be written as
 
e1 cppg
IFT 0 ¼ IFT 1 þ ð12Þ
cppg þ e2

2.5. Model solution

The finite difference method is employed to solve the complex
coupled system that consists of many nonlinear partial differential
equations. Here, an iterative method is used to decouple the hybrid
EOR model, which is robust and relatively time-saving. IMPSAT
method is adopted to implicitly solve the pressure, saturation
and explicitly solve the concentration of polymer and surfactant.
The fourth order Runge-Kutta method is used to discrete the con-
vection diffusion differential equation of polymer and surfactant.
The operator splitting technique is implemented to discrete the
more complex convection diffusion differential equation of PPG.
All the above techniques help to weaken numerical dispersion [11].
Fig. 1. The water rate prediction comparison between Eclipse and new model.
two water flooding slugs. The detail set-up data can be found in
an experiment study [26]. The coefficients for the interaction are
listed in Table 1. The coefficients are obtained by adjusting the val-
ues of each coefficient to history match the injection pressure
between the lab experiments and the simulation results. The good
agreement of the simulated and the experimental results in Fig. 2
indicates that the implemented interaction model can accurately
model PPG injection behavior followed by surfactant flooding.

2.6.3. Validation with core flooding for PPG/surfactant/polymer

2.6. Model validation
To validate the interaction between PPG and surfactant/poly-
mer, a two dimensional simulation model for a three-layer hetero-
The coupled model need validate with current experiment
geneous artificial core flooding is used. The physical model
results before application in actual field design. Firstly, the newly
parameters are listed in Table 2.
added surfactant module is validated with a commercial simulator.
The flooding process includes seven slugs: (1) inject water until
Then a PPG/surfactant coupled model is validated with a core
water cut reaches 98%; (2) inject 0.7 PV polymer solutions with the
flooding experiment. At last, the PPG/polymer/surfactant is vali-
dated with another core flooding experiment.

2.6.1. Validation with Eclipse for surfactant module

To validate the newly implemented surfactant module, a simple
one dimensional surfactant displacement model is established. The
grid dimension is 100  1  1, the grid sizes for x, y, and z direc-
tions are 1 m, 5 m and 5 m, respectively. This case includes one
injector and one producer. A surfactant flooding slug is injected
between two water flooding periods. The detail reservoir and fluid
data of this case can be found in a surfactant module implementa-
tion study [25]. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that there is good agree-
ment between our model and Eclipse simulator [22]. The results
demonstrate that the newly added surfactant module is reliable
for prediction.

2.6.2. Validation with core flooding for PPG/surfactant

To validate the interaction between PPG and surfactant without
polymer, a two dimensional model for an open fracture core flood-
ing case is built. The model includes a matrix layer with 20  1  1
grid blocks and a fracture layer also with 20  1  1 grid blocks. Fig. 2. Comparison of injection pressure for simulation results and lab data for PPG
The PPG surfactant sequential injection slug is injected between surfactant sequential injection for an open fracture core flooding.

Table 1
Coefficients for interaction between PPG and surfactant.

b1 b2 b3 d1 d2 d3 e1 e2
2.123  105 2.617  108 1.014  1012 1.099  103 0.1825 0.0006 1.243 1500
46 X. Chen et al. / Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49

Table 2 Table 3
The model parameters for three-layer heterogeneous artificial core flooding. The geological parameter of the pilot field for PPG conformance control.

Length/ Width/ Height/ Grid Porosity Permeability/ Layer Sand Net Permeability Water
m cm cm number (103 lm2) thickness thickness (103 lm2) saturation (%)
(m) (m)
30 4.5 4.5 20  1  3 0.25 100
30 4.5 4.5 20  1  3 0.28 290 1 2.72 2.03 541.47 47.31
30 4.5 4.5 20  1  3 0.30 1050 2 1.13 0.83 546.28 45.37
3 1.30 0.96 581.67 48.14
4 0.72 0.53 602.54 48.55
5 1.12 0.97 658.32 49.63
6 1.90 1.44 664.22 49.89
Sum/average 8.89 6.76 599.08 48.15

are shown in Table 3. It should be mentioned that the water satu-

ration in the table is the water saturation after history matched
with water flooding and polymer flooding, which is the initial
water saturation for PPG conformance control process. The PPG
injection schemes are divided into a big size PPG slug (35% total
injection volume) and a small size PPG slug (65% total injection
volume). Fig. 4 indicates that the water cut of the center producer
is well predicted by using our model in actual field application.

3.1.2. PPG-Surfactant EOR after polymer flooding

Fig. 3. History match of recovery factor of a core flooding for PPG surfactant after
polymer flooding.
concentration 1000 mg/L; (3) inject 0.3 PV water; (4) inject 0.3 PV
2000 mg/L PPG solution; (5) inject 0.2 PV 100 mg/L cross-linking
agent solution; (6) inject 0.2 PV 0.2% surfactant solution; (7) inject
water until the water cut reaches 98%. It should be noted that the
injection of polymer/PPG/surfactant belongs to sequential injection
style. The large pores are blocked by the big PPG particles. The
cross-linking agent not only forms polymer gel with the residual
polymer in large throats but also penetrates into small throats.
The crosslinking agent comes from the field application in Daqing
Oilfield with 67% trivalent chromium ion. Here, the crosslinking
agent slug is used to reutilize the remaining polymer and our
model has also in-situ gel simulation function. The detail experi-
mental procedure and data can be found in our previous experi-
mental study [13].
Similar to aforementioned core flooding case, the interaction
parameters between PPG and polymer/surfactant are adjusted to
history match the recovery factor. Fig. 3 shows a good agreement
of the simulated and the experimental results, which indicates that
the presented model can accurately simulate the hybrid PPG/poly-
mer/surfactant flooding process.
A pilot area from Shengli oil field is chosen as the PPG-
surfactant EOR simulation after polymer flooding [27]. The pilot
area is about 0.275 km2 with a 135 m  150 m ranks well-
pattern. The pilot filed belongs to sandstone water-wet reservoir,
which has severe heterogeneity. The main parameters are shown
in Table 4.
This pilot also has gone through water flooding as well as poly-
mer flooding. At the beginning of PPG-surfactant EOR flooding, the
total recovery factor is about 52.3%. The injection schemes includes
a 0.05 PV conformance control slug (1500 mg/L PPG + 1500 mg/L
polymer) and a 0.3 PV main-slug (1200 mg/L PPG + 1200 mg/L
polymer + 0.4%wt surfactant). It should be noticed that the PPG/
surfactant/polymer are injected simultaneously in this pilot field.
By conducting numerical simulation, the predicted recovery factor
is increased 8.5% in comparison with water flooding. Fig. 5 shows
that the oil rate of a producer until now is well predicted by imple-
menting our model for actual field application.
3.2. Discussion and remarks
In this PPG/surfactant combined EOR method, PPG plays a very
important role in improving the sweep efficiency after polymer

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Model application

After validation with experimental data, the proposed model is

used to simulate the actual field applications. By applying in the
field scale, the coupled model is verified again and improved fur-
ther for field performance prediction purpose.

3.1.1. PPG conformance control after polymer flooding

A five-spot well pattern pilot area from Daqing oil field is cho-
sen as the PPG conformance control simulation after polymer
flooding [11]. The main geological parameters of this pilot field Fig. 4. Matched curve of water cut of the center production well in the pilot field.
 X. Chen et al. / Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49 47

Table 4
The main parameters of the pilot field for PPG-surfactant EOR.

Depth/m Net thickness/m Porosity/% Permeability/(103 lm2) Oil viscosity/mPas Temperature/°C Salinity/(mg/L)
11731230 14.2 33 1.52.5 16.3 69.5 5923

The reason comes from the fact that the remaining polymer in
the reservoir will decrease, while the synergy effect between poly-
mer and PPG will enhance the conformance control effect. In other
words, when injection timing is at the early stage, there is still a lot
of polymer remaining in the reservoir for further interaction with
PPG. Fig. 6(b) shows that the enhance oil recovery will increase
as the PPG injection concentration increases. The PPG conformance
control strength will increase as the concentration rises, which will
better block the high permeability layers. It is noteworthy that the
effect of PPG injection rate on enhanced oil recovery has a peak
value as shown in Fig. 6(c). When the injection rate is too slow,
PPG could not effectively block the high permeability layer as it
will migrate easily and get early breakthrough. When the injection
rate is too high, the injection pressure is so high that some low per-
meability layers also have much PPG extrusion that lead to severe
formation damage. Hence, a proper injection rate that balance the
above two effect will achieve the best conformance control effi-
ciency. In actual field plan design, the injectivity is very important
and its optimization should comprehensively consider the EOR
Fig. 5. Matched curve of oil rate of one producer in the pilot field.
requirement, well situation, the injection equipment capacity and
the rock mechanics. Fig. 6(d) shows that the enhanced oil recovery
will increase as the injection pore volume increases. The more PPG
flooding, which is the prerequisite in this hybrid process. Hence, it injection results in more favorable sweep efficiency for the follow-
is necessary to investigate the PPG conformance control mecha- ing water flooding. The above analysis not only achieves some
nisms by conducting numerical simulation after polymer flooding. insights into different parameters effect but also has some guideli-
A synthetic five-spot model, whose permeability shows positive nes for further field project design. The PPG conformance control
rhythm in vertical direction and homogeneous in horizontal direc- timing should be as early as possible and the injection rate should
tion, is established for parameters analysis. The positive rhythm be optimized for better efficiency. The PPG concentration and
means the sand particles change from large size to small size from injection volume should comprehensively consider the enhanced
top to down and the permeability increases as depth increases. The oil recovery and the capital investment.
injector-producer distance is 250 m and the vertical grid depth is In this paper, the new presented model delineates the main
1 m. The parameters of ten layers are listed in Table 5. mechanisms between PPG and surfactant after polymer flooding
Firstly, the water is injected until the water cut reaches 90%. based on previous experiment studies. However, there are still
Then 0.7 PV polymer slug is injected following a water slug until some current numerical model limitations in the model develop-
water cut reaches 90% again. Finally, a 0.05 PV PPG slug is injected ment and model solving. The complicated physicochemical phe-
for conformance control and then continues with water flooding nomenon for PPG/surfactant/polymer transport in hydrocarbon
until water cut reaches 98%. By adjusting different parameters, rich porous media still needs further investigation and rigorous
the enhanced oil recovery compared with no PPG injection case research.
is analyzed. The effects of PPG injection time, injection concentra- PPG migration belongs to particulate flow in porous media and
tion, injection rate and injection volume on enhanced oil recovery there is still no comprehensive model that can describe the PPG
are shown in Fig. 6. It should be noted that the PPG injection time is propagation and retention mechanisms. In our model, the PPG
the time when water cut reaches some specific values. deposition and restarting is considered by using threshold pressure
Fig. 6(a) indicates that the enhanced oil recovery will decrease gradient. However, the relationships between PPG particle size and
as the PPG injection timing is later when the water cut is higher. pore throat size are not included in current model. A preliminary
model that accounts for the PPG-pore size matching relations in
water flooding is established according to lab experiments [28].
Table 5 The PPG size distribution and its effect on plugging are important
Basic geology parameters of the conceptual model. to decide the deposition type (size exclusion or surface deposition).
Layer Areal permeability Vertical permeability Porosity Oil Hence, the size matching needs further evaluation by conducting
(103 lm2) (103 lm2) saturation more experiments and modeling studies.
1 200 20 0.15 0.8 The hybrid EOR model has been validated with several experi-
2 400 40 0.16 0.8 mental cases and also applied in several pilot performance predic-
3 600 60 0.17 0.8 tions. Although the results show relatively good agreement, more
4 800 80 0.18 0.8
validation needs to be performed for model improvements, espe-
5 1000 100 0.19 0.8
6 1200 120 0.20 0.8 cially for the parameters adjustment for practical field applica-
7 1400 140 0.21 0.8 tions. For example, how to achieve the model parameters from
8 1600 160 0.22 0.8 experiment results and make reasonable changes for field applica-
9 1800 180 0.23 0.8 tion. In unconsolidated sandstone oil reservoirs, sometimes the
10 2000 200 0.24 0.8
fluid-solid coupling effect has a great effect on the production
48 X. Chen et al. / Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49
Fig. 6. Parameters analysis of PPG conformance control after polymer flooding: (a) The effect of conformance control timing on enhanced oil recovery; (b) The effect of PPG
concentration on enhanced oil recovery; (c) The effect of PPG injection rate on enhanced oil recovery; (d) The effect of PPG injection pore volume on enhanced oil recovery.
performance, so it is needed to incorporate the PPG migration
model into fluid-solid coupling model.
In addition, the numerical methods should be addressed when
considering field simulations. The iterative coupling method
adopted in this paper is an effective decoupling strategy in solving
fluid-solid coupling problems [29]. When encountering the PPG/
polymer/surfactant flooding in complex reservoirs, its numerical
feasibility and stability needs more test and examination. More
advanced numerical techniques need to incorporated in the further
development.
The coupled model now can handle PPG related EOR methods in
sandstone reservoirs. PPG can effectively mitigate the heterogene-
ity in sandstone by conformance control effect. Most chemical EOR
methods are applied in sandstone reservoirs. However, chemical
EOR for carbonate reservoirs recently is becoming popular as car-
bonate reservoir steps into the late period of water flooding. PPG
can also be used as conformance control agent in fracture reser-
voirs. After adding fracture model, the coupled model can simulate
hybrid EOR process in carbonate reservoirs, such as surfactant
forced imbibition process by PPG for fracture reservoirs. To our
knowledge, some researchers have implemented Embedded Dis-
crete Fracture Modeling (EDFM) module in an in-house simulator
to enable conformance control simulation in fractured reservoirs
[30]. However, the PPG migration in fractures and the complex
chemical flooding simulation in fractured reservoir still need fur-
ther exploration.
The presented model originates from the lab experiments and it
can be used to optimize field plan. The current model lacks the
upscaling from the core-scale to field-scale, and it is important to
determine the appropriate parameters for filed simulation from
lab experiments results. On the contrary to the macro simulation,
pore-scale modeling or micro simulation investigates the migra-
tion in porous media by considering the micro physical-chemical
effect, which is helpful in studying the PPG migration and retention
mechanisms. Recent years, some simulation methods, such as Dis-
crete Element Method (DEM) and Lattice Boltzmann Method
(LBM), are adopted by many researchers to simulate the particle
solution migration in porous media. Therefore, it is reasonable to
carry out some micro simulation study for PPG migration in porous
media.
The current model can handle some specific PPG EOR process,
however the PPG diameter has evolved from micrometer to
nanometer and some new nanoparticle combined chemical meth-
ods are emerging as more effective complex EOR methods. The
nano-engineering PPG will greatly enhance some traditional meth-
ods such as polymer flooding and foam flooding, which indicates
nanoparticle has a favorable potential in EOR. The model presented
in this paper can provide some useful insights for future model
development and solving in chemical flooding numerical simula-
tion study.
4. Conclusions
The conclusions for this study are presented below:
(1) A coupled PPG surfactant model after polymer flooding was
developed. This coupled model considers the interaction
between PPG and surfactant.
 X. Chen et al. / Fuel 194 (2017) 42–49
(2) The newly added surfactant module was validated with a
commercial simulator. Two core flooding cases were used
to validate the PPG/surfactant coupled model and PPG/poly-
mer/surfactant model.
(3) Two field pilots were used to verify the coupled model appli-
cations, including PPG conformance control after polymer
flooding in Daqing oil field and PPG-surfactant EOR after
polymer flooding in Shengli oil field.
(4) A conceptual model is used to investigate the effects of dif-
ferent parameters on PPG conformance control after poly-
mer flooding. The oil recovery will increase as the PPG
concentration and injection volume increases and decrease
as the PPG injection timing is later. There is an optimized
injection rate for PPG conformance control as it needs a bal-
ance medium injection rate between avoiding early break-
through and preventing formation damage.
Acknowledgements
This work was mainly sponsored by the National Natural
Science Foundation (Grant No. 51174222 and Grant No.
51474233) of China. Some supporting came from State Key Labora-
tory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation (Chengdu
University of Technology, China) Open Fund (Characterization of
Shale Microstructural and Mechanical Properties, Grant No.
PLC201607). This work was also partly sponsored by a National
Science and Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2016ZX05023-
001).
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