Use of Betaine-Based Gel and Its Potential Application in Enhanced Oil Recovery
Yuman Wu,
Jie Zhang,
Sanbao Dong,
Yongfei Li,
Michal Slaný,
Gang Chen
Affiliations
Yuman Wu
Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Reservoir Protection Technology of Oilfields, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
Jie Zhang
Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Reservoir Protection Technology of Oilfields, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
Sanbao Dong
Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Reservoir Protection Technology of Oilfields, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
Yongfei Li
Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Reservoir Protection Technology of Oilfields, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
Michal Slaný
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 36 Bratislava, Slovakia
Gang Chen
Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Reservoir Protection Technology of Oilfields, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
In this paper, a betaine-based gel containing 2.0% erucamide propyl betaine (EAPB), 0.5% oleic acid amide propyl betaine (OAPB), and 0.1% KCl was prepared for use as a fracturing fluid. The performance evaluation showed that KCl may improve the temperature resistance and increase the viscosity of the optimized fracturing fluid. At 80 °C, the apparent viscosity of the viscoelastic surfactant (VES)-based fracturing fluid was approximately 50 mPa·s. Furthermore, the gel had high shear resistance, good viscosity stability, and high sand-carrying performance. After being sheared at 170 s−1 for 60 min, the reduction in viscosity was 13.6%. The viscosity of the gel was relatively stable at room temperature (27 °C) for one week. In a suspension containing 10% sand (particle size −3), the settling velocity of proppant particles was 1.15 cm h−1. In addition, we detected that the critical micelle concentration of this gel was approximately 0.042 wt%. The viscosity could be reduced to <5 mPa·s at 60 °C within 1 h when 6.0% crude oil was present, and oil displacement experiments showed that the broken fracturing fluid can enhance the oil displacement rate up to 14.5%. This work may facilitate research on fracturing fluids and oil recovery.
