Effect of operation parameters on CO2-foam process

Reducing the mobility of CO2 by means of generating in situ foam is an effective method for improving the oil recovery in CO2 flooding processes. Implementation of the CO2-foam technique typically involves the co-injection of CO2 and surfactant solution into the porous medium. The surfactant molecules form bubble films that trap the. owing CO2 molecules. The effectiveness of the CO2-foam process is measured in terms of foam mobility. The mobility of CO2-foam is affected by different operation parameters, such as pressure, temperature, foam quality, and brine concentration. However, surfactant type governs the overall efficiency of the CO2-foam process. This paper presents the results of a series of experiments conducted to study the effect of various parameters on the CO2-foam process. Bottle tests were conducted for four commercially available surfactants and among them, Chaser CD-1045 was found to be the most effective surfactant for CO2-foam flow under reservoir conditions. It was observed that an increase in pressure from 1,200 psi to 1,500 psi leads to increase of the mobility of CO2-foam, and an increase in temperature from 72 to 122 degrees F reduces the mobility. Also, as the foam quality increases from 20 to 80%, the mobility decreases. It was observed that there was no significant effect on the mobility with an increase in brine concentration from 1 to 3 wt%.