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Combined microfluidics–confocal Raman microscopy platform for studying enhanced oil recovery mechanisms
Author(s) -
Gao Jun,
Nair Sachin,
Duits Michel H.G.,
Otto Cees,
Mugele Frieder
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of raman spectroscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.748
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1097-4555
pISSN - 0377-0486
DOI - 10.1002/jrs.5601
Subject(s) - divalent , gibbsite , microfluidics , enhanced oil recovery , chemical engineering , raman spectroscopy , chemistry , raman scattering , materials science , nanotechnology , mineralogy , organic chemistry , kaolinite , engineering , physics , optics
To study the mechanism of enhanced oil recovery, it is important to characterize the three‐dimensional spatial distribution of various chemical species, especially water and oil, and their evolution during the course of water flooding. For example, visualizing the (selective) removal of oil from clay or silica substrates by low salinity water can yield important insights. Here, we present a platform that uses a microfluidic device (to represent water flooding at the pore scale) in combination with confocal Raman microscopy. Distributions of oil, water, and minerals are resolved at submicrometer resolution upon flooding water with changing composition. Using glass and gibbsite to mimic sandstone and clay, and water containing divalent cations (Ca 2+ ), we find that oil containing a fatty acid preferentially adsorbs on the gibbsite. Removal of the divalent cations leads to release of the oil droplet. This finding is consistent with the multiple ion exchange mechanism and underlines that the presence of clay is important for low salinity enhanced oil recovery. We expect that our platform will pave the road towards systematic screening of water flood compositions in more complex systems.