ENHANCED POLYMER FLOODING USING A NOVEL NANO-SCALE SMART POLYMER: EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

Polymer flooding is a well-known commercial method among enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. Despite its successful development, this method could still be improved considerably by utilizing new polymeric materials and systems. The main objective of this study is the implementation of smart-covered polymer particles (SCPP) prepared by multistep inverse emulsion polymerization, to improve polymer flooding efficiency. Successive to the average molecular weight determination of the core polymer using the dilute solution method, the dissolution behaviour of SCPPs is examined at reservoir temperature in a specific setup. In addition to investigating the efficiency of SCPP flooding, polymer flooding experiments in a micromodel setup are examined. The flooding efficiency of conventional polyacrylamide and the newly developed SCPP solutions are compared with the water flooding process. Our results provide new insight into the ability of coated polymers to enhance the recovery efficiency of polymer flooding processes.