Wormlike micelles as a substitute of polymeric mobility control agent: Rheological comparison

Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides (HPAM) polymers are extensively used as primary mobility control agent for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). HPAM polymers are degradable at critical parameters of reservoir i.e. high temperature; high salinity and high shear rates brought negative effects on their viscosity and causing unfavorable mobility ratio in situ in reservoir. Therefore, capable mobility control agent is required in the industry for Chemical EOR. In this paper, Wormlike Micellar (WLM) solutions were studied as an alternative to HPAM. Two different compositional systems of WLM solutions were chosen and prepared in laboratory - Hexadecyltrimethylammonium Bromide/Sodium Nitrate and Three-(N, N-Dimethyloctadecylammonio) Propane-Sulfonate/Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (TDPS)/Sodium Chloride. Then rheological measurements were carried out to investigate the effect of shear rates and concentrations. Then performance of WLM solutions was compared with HPAM. The results showed that WLM solutions had excellent rheological resemblances with HPAM polymer solutions. Despite of their different chemical phenomena, the WLM solutions were found to be flexible and unrestricted to the particular concentrations. Though multi-components are involved in their compositions, such as salt or co-surfactant was enabled in their compositions to adjust the viscosity of solutions. Besides, WLM solutions were easier than polymer to be prepared in laboratory. Based on these experimental results, this study strongly supported the use of WLM solution to be used as a substitute of HPAM polymer, which can overcome these limitations of Chemical EOR method. Copyright 2014, Offshore Technology Conference.