A Mechanistic Study on the Behavior of Injected Hydrogels in Porous Media for Enhanced Oil Recovery

In this communication, the process of hydrogel injection to micromodel was studied. This process consisted of water flooding in an oil saturated model until the breakthrough time and then the injection of hydrogels. Sensitivity analysis was performed on effective parameters of this process including wettability, injection rate, temperature and viscosity. Simultaneous effects of injection rate, viscosity and wettability were also studied on oil recovery factor in water flooding. Considering the simultaneous effects of injection rate and viscosity, the best recovery factor (50.87%) was obtained at flow rate of 2 10-4 cc/min and viscosity of 8.3 cp. During the hydrogel injection, they might deform, pass, or plug the throats depending on the throat diameter, or might break into smaller particles. These mechanisms including pressure variations were reviewed in this study. Finally, the performance of hydrogels was confirmed in a heterogeneous porous media.