Enhanced Oil Recovery of Heavy and Light Oil Using Nanoparticles-A Review

Abstract

Enhanced Oil Recovery of Heavy and Light Oil Using Nanoparticles-A Review

Since with the depilating resources of hydrocarbons, the more focus is towards unconventional reservoirs like heavy oil and shale reserves. In the past period time, the crude oil requirement has been raised extensively worldwide, which is a result of stressing the supply of conventional oil. Enhanced oil recovery procedures are applied to the reservoirs to recover a surplus amount of oil which is not able to recover by secondary method such as water flooding and gas injection. In the current scenario where available reserves of hydrocarbons are declining the attention is towards EOR techniques especially towards nanotechnology. This paper has presented an overview of recent researches on the use of nanoparticles in oil and gas, especially for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques. The first half of the paper discusses different EOR techniques exhibited in the oil and gas sector. Further, it addresses the use of Nanotechnology in the petroleum sector by covering the potential of nanoparticles in recovery, mechanism of production. The last part of this paper focuses on the reduction of interfacial tension and wettability alteration with the help of nanoparticles. Finally, there are some conclusions that are drawn from a number of researches which include the challenges and opportunities for future researches in the field of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) using nanoparticles. It highlights that SiO₂, Al2O₃,TiO₂, ZrO₂ nanoparticles are the most widely used nanoparticles for the reduction of interfacial tension and wettability alteration. With the help of nanofluids induction, many problems faced by EOR are able to solve. With numerous benefits of using nanoparticles in the oil and gas sector, there are some challenges too, which include it’s more expensive to use and their implication in the specified sector. For futuristic outlook cheaper means of nanoparticles should be introduced such as nanoclays.