Oil displacement by supercritical CO2 in a water cut dead-end pore: Molecular dynamics simulation

YL Luan and B Liu and P Hao and KY Zhan and JL Liu, JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, 188, 106899 (2020).

DOI: 10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106899

Exploitation of residual oils from the micro/nanopores in the reservoir is one perpetual goal of Enhancing oil recovery (EOR), which presents a big challenge for both advanced technologies and fundamental theories. In the current study, we make a comprehensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulation on the displacement process of trapped oils inside a water cut dead-end pore driven by supercritical CO2 molecules. Firstly, the whole displacement process is fully demonstrated by snapshots of MD simulation. Next, the collapse details of the water film between carbon dioxide and octane are simulated, where the hydrogen bonds and the evolution of ruptured hole are discussed. Thirdly, the configuration of the oil-water interface is computed and analyzed by the Laplace equation. Fourthly, the displacement mechanism of octane by carbon dioxide is explained according to the energy principle. These findings can strengthen our understandings on the details of the residual oil displacement in rocks, which may provide some inspirations on the oil recovery enhancement.

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