Petroleum Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Millimeter-Sized Preformed Particle Gel For Conformance Control Treatments Using Simple Models, Ali Abdulmohsen Al Brahim

Masters Theses

Millimeter-sized preformed particle gels (PPGs) have been successfully used to tackle the high-permeable zones, fractures and channels in mature oilfields for conformance control improvement. PPGs can significantly reduce the permeability of abnormal fractures and divert injected water to the low permeable zones where hydrocarbon was not swept by previous water flooding. Due to the irregularity of PPGs in shapes after swollen, their strength cannot be easily measured using the conventional methods. Therefore, the open hole screen plate models with various hole diameters and density were designed to establish a simple technique that can be used to measure the strength of …

Evaluation Of Preformed Particle Gel Treatment Using Homogeneous And Heterogeneous Models, Hilary Ogochukwu Elue

Masters Theses

"This research investigates the effects of preformed particle gel (PPG) in remedying the problems of excess water production and low oil recovery of heterogeneous reservoirs by placing the PPG in the high-permeability layer, thus diverting displacing brine to the unswept low permeability layer. This investigation was completed with three tasks.

The first task was to evaluate the PPG swelling kinetics and strength as a function of concentration of brine. The result of this task indicate that PPG prepared with low concentration of brine swells more, becomes weaker, more deformable than PPG prepared with high concentration of brine.

The second task …

Effect Of Polymer On Disproportionate Permeability Reduction To Gas And Water For Fractured Shales, Lingbo Liu

Masters Theses

"Large volumes of fracturing fluid are required in shale slickwater fracs, and a considerable amount of polymer friction reducer would remain in microfractures if the polymer has not been broken before gas production. It is of major interest to evaluate the effect of polymer on water/gas flow behavior in the microfractures of shale reservoirs. We fabricated six shale fracture models with different fracture widths and set up a core flooding apparatus to conduct brine/gas-injection experiments before and after polymer treatment. A method by which to calculate the residual resistance factor for gas (F_rr,gas) was defined. The experimental results …

Co₂ Miscible Flooding Application And Screening Criteria, Mingfei Yin

Masters Theses

"Field experience has shown that CO₂ miscible flooding is an effective method to improve oil recovery, but only with proper reservoir candidate selection and optimal project design. This paper discusses both CO₂ miscible and immiscible flooding mechanisms and offers some guidelines for flooding operations. New developments in MMP determination are also introduced.

This research is based on a summary of field data from 134 CO₂ projects in the U.S. Several numerical methods have been applied for data cleaning. After cleaning, data from 128 projects have been analyzed and correlated. Carbonate reservoirs and sandstone reservoirs are the two …

Synthesis Of Different Sizes & Functions Nanoparticles, Jiaming Geng

Masters Theses

"Nanogels, whose size range from 1 to 100nm, have been interested in many research areas: cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, catalysts, photochemistry, and in optical switches or sensors. In Petroleum Engineering area, nanogels can be used as conformance control agent and emulsion stabilizer. And after grafting functional groups or hybrid, nanogels can be used as tracer for the visual modeling.

Though nanoparticles have been studied for more than 20 years, few of them are about nanogels. In the thesis, stirring rate, surfactant type and concentration were found have a large impact on the synthesis of nanogels. And cationic nanogels have salt and acid …

Steam Flooding Screening And Eor Prediction By Using Clustering Algorithm And Data Visualization, Na Zhang

Masters Theses

"Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques are vitally important in the oil industry because these techniques could not only extend the life of wells, but also produce 10% to 30% additional oil from the reservoir. However, selecting the most suitable EOR techniques for unknown reservoirs is not easy for decision making. Based on literature, EOR screening criteria could help to find the best candidates for unknown projects, which is classified into two categories: conventional EOR screening and advanced EOR screening. In this research, an artificial intelligent (AI) method, hierarchical clustering algorithm, is adapted to analyze both steam flooding projects and worldwide …

Survey And Data Analysis Of Polymer Flooding Pilot And Field Applications In China, Yandong Zhang

Masters Theses

"Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are regarded as important methods to recovery remaining oil after primary and secondary recovery. It is significant to select the most appropriate EOR process among the possible techniques for a candidate reservoir. EOR screening criteria has been created using available EOR datasets and served as the first step to compare the suitability of each EOR method for a particular reservoir. Most of these datasets are collected from EOR surveys published by Oil & Gas Journal. This study proposes a comprehensive study of a dataset including 55 pilot and field polymer flooding applications in China. Statistical …

Growth And Properties Of Carbon Microcoils And Nanocoils, Muneaki Hikita, Robyn Bradford, Khalid Lafdi

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Various types of coiled carbon filaments have been synthesized using chemical vapor deposition and other methods. These carbon filaments exhibit unique electrical and mechanical properties due to their versatile shapes and structures. To form coiled shapes, different types of catalyst compositions and reactive gases have been explored. Generally, coiled carbon filaments are classified by coil diameter and shape (e.g., microcoil and nanocoil). In this review, coiled carbon filaments are classified into three growth mechanism categories:

(1) bidirectional double helical growth;

(2) bidirectional twisted growth; and

(3) tip single helical or twisted growth.

Next, their synthesis methods and hypothetical growth mechanisms …

Slow Release Of Ions From Internalized Silver Nanoparticles Modifies The Epidermal Growth Factor Signaling Response, Kristen K. Comfort, Elizabeth I. Maurer, Saber M. Hussain

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Due to their distinctive physiochemical properties, including a robust antibacterial activity and plasmonic capability, hundreds of consumer and medical products contain colloidal silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). However, even at sub-toxic dosages, AgNPs are able to disrupt cell functionality, through a yet unknown mechanism. Moreover, internalized AgNPs have the potential to prolong this disruption, even after the removal of excess particles. In the present study, we evaluated the impact, mechanism of action, and continual effects of 50 nm AgNP exposure on epidermal growth factor (EGF) signal transduction within a human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cell line. After AgNP expose, EGF signaling was initially obstructed …

An Economic Analysis Of Small-Scale Biodiesel Production: Implementation Of Ethyl Ester Production In A Job Shop Setting, Scott Haase, Benjamin Craig

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Biodiesel is becoming a demanded consumer automotive alternative fuel used in diesel vehicles today. An emerging trend is toward small-scale biodiesel production performed by the final consumer. A limited source of commercially available production systems exists and has resulted in many systems being designed and built by the user. Preliminary research conducted by the authors has shown biodiesel to be the least-cost alternative to petroleum diesel after as few as 8 months of system use. This study examines the economic viability of building and producing biodiesel using a small-scale production system versus buying consumer petroleum diesel. During production, measurements were …

Catalysis In Petroleum Coking, Robert Khakimov, Anya Heinimann, Enrico Martinez, Hyun-Tae Hwang

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The petroleum industry is challenged with the processing of present heavy crudes caused by high composition of sulfur and metals, which lead to a higher yield of unfavorable bottom product as vacuum residue. Vacuum residue is the least valuable fraction of four, such as saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes. However, it can be upgraded to recover more valuable products such as light hydrocarbons. The Delayed Coking process is going to be used to transform the vacuum residue at different experimental conditions. First of all, the behavior of the vacuum residue needs to be analyzed with no additions in feedstock. Secondly, …

The Catalysis Of Delayed Petroleum Coking, Anya M. Heinimann, Robert Khakimov, Hyun-Tae Hwang, Enrico N. Martinez

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Due to the decreasing crude oil quality (heavier crudes and increasing contaminant concentrations) methods for upgrading residues from the refining process, such as coking, are becoming increasingly important. Delayed coking, a method by which residues are thermally cracked (large heavy molecules broken into smaller lighter molecules), produces liquid products and solid coke which can both be sold for further profit. In order to increase the amount of liquid products produced since they are the most value added product of the coking process catalysts (platinum on 0.5% alumina and nickel (skeletal),molybdenum promoted (1 wt%)) were tested to see how they would …

Hydraulic Fracturing Water Recycle Through Optimal Ultrafiltration And Nanofiltration Membranes System Design, Long Tran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Innovations in hydraulic fracturing technology have created opportunities for petroleum and natural gas production. This technology injects water, sand, and additives to create fissures in rock formations and discharge oil and gas to the surface. The average amount of water used per well is approximately 4.4 million gallons. The large water demand and the complexities involved in wastewater treatment make this process very expensive and not sustainable as far as water use is concerned. Flexible membrane technology has not been developed to process fracking water for re-use across the U.S. The objective of this project is to compare and analyze …

Experimental Investigation Of Injectivity In Unconsolidated Formations, Callie Pritchett

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Phase Transformations In Calcium Substituted Lanthanum Ferrite, Patrick M. Price

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Increasing world energy demands are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. To meet these demands, crude oil is increasingly being extracted from remote locations where natural gas pipelines do not exist. It is not profitable for oil and gas companies to transport natural gas by ship or truck from these remote locations so it is combusted on site in the form of gas flares. Critics oppose this practice due to the environmental impact from pollution and carbon emissions created during the flaring process. Oil and gas companies are eager to find profitable ways to eliminate natural gas lines in order …

Economic Profitability Of The Bakken, North Dakota Unconventional Oil Plays Based On A Typical Well Performance With Current Market Conditions, Mehmet Apaydin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Increases in oil prices after the economic recession have been surprising for domestic oil production in the United States since the beginning of 2009. Not only did the conventional oil extraction increase, but unconventional oil production and exploration also improved greatly with the favorable economic conditions. This favorable economy encourages companies to invest in new reservoirs and technological developments. Recently, enhanced drilling techniques including hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have been supporting the domestic economy by way of unconventional shale and tight oil from various U.S. locations. One of the main contributors to this oil boom is the unconventional oil …

Study And Pilot Test On A Novel Eor Method - Coupling Ppg Conformance Control And Surfactant Flooding, Farag Awadh Muhammed

Doctoral Dissertations

"The interest in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods has re-emerged in recent years; however, significant challenges remain for the widespread deployment of these methods. One major downside to the successful application of EOR technologies in mature reservoirs is conformance problems (e.g. heterogeneity). To mitigate these problems, a novel EOR method which couple preformed particle gel (PPGs) conformance treatment with traditional surfactant flooding in one process is introduced.

This dissertation provides a comprehensive study for the proposed method. A series of laboratory tests were carried out to understand the chemical interaction between PPGs and surfactants. A new method to evaluate PPGs …

Natural Selectivity Of Nickel And Vanadium In Crude Oil, Olienka P. De La O Fernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nickel and Vanadium have always been found in crude oil all around the world. The metal content is found mainly in porphyrin structures in the asphaltene fraction of the petroleum. In order to determine the reason for this natural preference, a set of experiments testing thermodynamics, kinetics, and other factors were performed. Candidate metalloporphyrins containing Vanadyl, Chromium, Iron, Nickel, Copper and Zinc were analyzed through chemical reactions characterized using Silica Column Chromatography, HPLC, MS and UV-Visible. Theoretical analysis of the stability of metalloporphyrins was conducted using DFT/NRLMOL for computational calculation. The analysis of all factors leads us to conclude that …

Less Is More: Long-Term In Vitro Exposure To Low Levels Of Silver Nanoparticles Provides New Insights For Nanomaterial Evaluation, Kristen K. Comfort, Laura K. Braydich-Stolle, Elizabeth I. Maurer, Saber M. Hussain

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

In view of the vast number of new nanomaterials (NMs) that require testing and the constraints associated with animal models, the majority of studies to elucidate nanotoxicological effects have occurred in vitro, with limited correlation and applicability to in vivo systems and realistic, occupational exposure scenarios.

In this study, we developed and implemented a chronic in vitromodel coupled with lower, regulatory dosages in order to provide a more realistic assessment of NM-dependent consequences and illuminate the implications of long-term NM exposure. When keratinocytes were exposed to 50 nm silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), we determined that chronically dosed cells operated …

Experimental Assessment Of Cement Integrity Under Thermal Cycle Loading Conditions In Geopressured Geothermal Reservoirs, Kolawole Saheed Bello

LSU Master's Theses

The number of well integrity issues increase as wells are exposed to severe downhole conditions and have longer lifetimes. Techniques for heat extraction from geopressured geothermal reservoirs involve production of hot water and injection of cold water which expose downhole materials to harsh cyclic temperature variations. Heating and cooling make the cement expand and contract as a result of thermal expansion. This volumetric change can influence cement sheaths causing them to fail. Failure of annular cement sheaths can introduce well integrity issues and subsequently lead to sustained casing pressure. This study measures the effect of cyclic thermal loading of cement …