Novel Enhanced Oil Recovery Method using Co2+xFe2+1-xFe2O4 as Magnetic
Nanoparticles Activated by Electromagnetic Waves
Hassan Soleimani1, Noorhana Yahya1, Noor Rasyada Ahmad Latiff1, Birol MR Demiral3
1Fundamental and Applied Sciences Department,
2Center of Excellence for Enhanced Oil Recovery,
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 31750 Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia.
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Deep water oil reservoirs buried more than 500m possess high temperature and high pressure
conditions, which caused failure to most of the oil recovery methods involving fluid injection. A noninvasive electromagnetic (EM) wave transmission system coupled with nanofluid injection has been
proposed to improve recovery factor of an oil reservoir. Interactions of the magnetic nanoparticles at
low frequency radio wave range are mainly ionic, which could be manipulated to disturb the
compatibility at oil-water interfaces. An attempt to measure oil recovery due to interaction of EM
waves with magnetic nanoparticles has been performed. In this work, Co2+xFe2+1-xFe2O4
nanoparticles was synthesized via co-precipitation route. As deduced from the XRD line broadening,
the average crystallite size of the samples was found to be in the range of 13.0-15.0 nm and contain
fcc structure with smaller lattice constant as the Co/Fe ratios increases. nanofluid was prepared by
dispersing Co2+xFe2+1-xFe2O4 nanoparticles in deionized water and ultrasonicated for 2 hours,
which then injected into a packed glass bead column of 24 cm length and having permeability 380
mD, to replicate the reservoir material. Prior to this injection, the column was saturated with Arabian
Heavy crude oil of viscosity 16.31 cp at 25°C, followed by water flooding to recover 73% of the
original oil in place (OOIP). After 30 minutes exposure to electromagnetic wave radiation and
nanofluid injection simultaneously, it has successfully recovered 27% of the remaining oil. It is
expected that interaction between EM waves and Co2+xFe2+1-xFe2O4 nanoparticles in the column
will induce atomic vibration on the pore surfaces and as a consequence, released the trapped oil.
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