Mechanism governing nanoparticle fow behaviour in porous media: insight for enhanced oil recovery applications

Nanotechnology has found its way to petroleum engineering, it is well-accepted path in the oil and gas industry to recover more oil trapped in the reservoir. But the addition of nanoparticles to a liquid can result in the simplest fow becoming complex. To understand the working mechanism, there is a need to study the fow behaviour of these particles. This review highlights the mechanism afecting the fow of nanoparticles in porous media as it relates to enhanced oil recovery. The discussion focuses on chemical-enhanced oil recovery, a review on laboratory experiment on wettability alteration, efect of interfacial tension and the stability of emulsion and foam is discussed. The fow behaviour of nanoparticles in porous media was discussed laying emphasis on the physical aspect of the fow, the microscopic rheological behaviour and the adsorption of the nanoparticles. It was observed that nanofuids exhibit Newtonian behaviour at low shear rate and non-Newtonian behaviour at high shear rate. Gravitational and capillary forces are responsible for the shift in wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. The dominant mechanisms of foam fow process were lamellae division and bubble to multiple bubble lamellae division. In a water-wet system, the dominant mechanism of fow process and residual oil mobilization are lamellae division and emulsifcation, respectively. Whereas in an oil-wet system, the generation of pre-spinning continuous gas foam was the dominant mechanism. The literature review on oil displacement test and feld trials indicates that nanoparticles can recover additional oil. The challenges encountered have opened new frontier for research and are highlighted herein.