CHE F422

Petroleum Refining Technology

Project Report
Group Members:
Kamal Khemka (2017A1PS0691P)
Somya Agarwal (2016B1A1PS741P)
Shivam Arora (2017B1A1PS958P)

Topic: Application of Nanotechnology for increasing the efficiency of Enhanced Oil

Recovery Processes.

Background – Relevance of the topic and importance of the particular field

It is expected that the worldwide energy demand will increase up to 50% by the end of
2030. The contribution of renewable resources seems to be insignificant in meeting the
increased demand for energy. Therefore, Oil will remain the major source of energy in
the next few decades. Owing to this increased energy demand, it is extremely important
to explore the new fields and maximize the production from existing oil fields.
However, only one-third of the total oil present in the reservoir can be recovered using
the conventional oil recovery techniques. Several chemicals, thermal and gas injection
methods are employed to recover the remaining oil. These are termed as tertiary oil
recovery or enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) is the process of
increasing the amount of oil that can be recovered from an oil reservoir, usually by injecting a
substance into an existing oil well to increase pressure and reduce the viscosity of the oil. It is
also called Improved Oil Recovery or Tertiary Recovery. The processes involved in the EOR
can be classified into 3 major categories namely Chemical, Thermal and Miscible. Chemical
includes (Surfactant, Micellar Polymer, Polymer and Alkaline or Caustic Flooding), Thermal
includes (Steam and Fire Flooding) whereas Miscible includes (Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen,
Flue Gas and enriched hydrocarbon gas flooding). In recent years polymer flooding of heavy
oil has been extensively studied in laboratories and successful applied in the various fields.
Still the need for a large amount of polymer, leading to high operational costs, present a big
challenge in technologies. This challenge can be addressed by the new emerging nanoparticles.
Design and development of EOR requires the consideration of a wide variety of chemical
problems. Some of the more important problems include (a) design of suitable EOR agents that
will be effective under reservoir conditions, (b) minimizing the requirements for the expensive
agents, and (c) predicting and reducing losses of these agents. Recent studies show that
nanoparticles can be used in increasing the efficiency of these EOR techniques. Nanoparticles
have various uses in the oil and gas industry. Its use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is
beginning to emerge. EOR experiments are now being performed using different types of
nanoparticles dispersed in different fluids. The nanoparticles like Magnesium oxide,
Aluminium oxide, Zinc oxide, Zirconium oxide, Tin oxide, Iron oxide, Nickel oxide,
hydrophobic Silicon oxide and Silicon oxide treated with silane are now being tested for the
applications in enhanced oil recovery. A large number of nanoparticles have been
investigated for enhanced oil recovery applications either alone or in combination with
surfactants and/or polymers. They have a huge impact of wettability alteration,
interfacial tension and rheology which drives the oil recovery process from an oil
reservoir. Nanoparticles exhibit exceptional properties owing to their small size and
large surface area. The dispersion of the nanoparticles in the solution depends mainly
on their functionality. Therefore, they are usually treated to avoid the interparticle
interactions. There had been some instances of success of EORs in India and a huge
future scope to enhance the process using nanoparticles.

Methodology – Related to the structure of the review report based on the topic or
chronology
The methodology which we are going to follow is to first go through the fundamental concepts
and research in the papers mentioned below. The structure of the review report will include the
introduction to EOR and its different types, current scenario of the processes used in the
Enhanced Oil Recovery Process followed up by the problems faced during these processes.
This will be followed by the introduction of nanoparticles which have been recently tested to
be used in specific EOR processes to and have resulted in an increase in their efficiency. We
will then try to look into successful implementation of EOR systems in India and also try to
focus on the scope of Nanotechnology to improve these EOR processes in India and their
economic aspects .
Timeline

References
1. Sun, X., Zhang, Y., Chen, G., & Gai, Z. (2017). Application of Nanoparticles in Enhanced
Oil Recovery: A Critical Review of Recent Progress. Energies, 10(3), 345.
2. Betancur, S., Carrasco-Marín, F., Perez-Cadenas, A. F., Franco-Ariza, C. A., Jiménez, J. A.,
Manrique, E. J., … Cortés, F. B. (2019). Effect of Magnetic Iron Core-Carbon Shell
Nanoparticles in Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (CEOR) for Ultra-Low Interfacial Tension
Region. Energy & Fuels.
3. Saha, R., Uppaluri, R. V. S., & Tiwari, D. P. (2019). Impact of Natural Surfactant (Reetha),
Polymer (Xanthan Gum) and Silica Nanoparticles to Enhance Heavy Crude Oil Recovery.
Energy & Fuels.
4. Cheraghian, G. (2016). Effect of nano titanium dioxide on heavy oil recovery during polymer
flooding. Petroleum Science and Technology, 34(7), 633–641.
5. Chattopadhyay, S. K., Binay, R., Bhattacharya, R. N., & Das, T. K. (2004). Enhanced Oil
Recovery by In-Situ Combustion Process in Santhal Field of Cambay Basin, Mehsana, Gujarat,
India - A Case Study. SPE/DOE Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery.