Laboratory Investigation of Effects of Nanoparticles and Carbon Dioxide Flooding on Heavy Crude Recovery

In this research, the effectiveness of carbon-dioxide (CO2) enhanced oil recovery/production is systematically assessed along with various mass percent (%) concentration of nanoparticles. This study investigates experimentally, the Production rate of the crude oil recovered, cumulative oil recovered and the recovery factor using magnesium oxide (MgO), aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and combination of both magnesium and aluminum oxide in various mass percent concentrations (5 – 25 grams) with carbon-dioxide assisting in the drive. After measuring ten (10) liters of heavy crude oil, Magnesium and Aluminum Oxide (MgO and Al2O3) nanoparticles in amounts of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 grams were added and mixed. The nanoparticles were combined in equal mass percent concentrations and allowed to soak for 24hrs and all pumped at 1bar of CO2 in an enhanced-oil recovery system set up in the laboratory. The density, viscosity, flow rate, and heavy crude oil recovered were measured at the different mass percent of the nano-particles. The result shows that increase in mass percent concentration reduced the density from 1.02g/cc to 0.977g/cc for MgO nanoparticle and CO2, 0.974g/cc density was also recorded for Al2O3 and CO2 and 0.985g/cc was recorded after the combination of both nanoparticles. Concentrations increased API from 5.98oAPI to 13.3oAPI for MgO, 14.8oAPI was also recorded for Al2O3 and 14.2oAPI after the combination. The Viscosity also increased with increase in mass percent concentration from 5.83cp to 9.19cp for MgO, 8.35cp for Al2O3 and 7.89cp after the combination. The Production rate increased from 0.7 ml/s to 0.89 ml/s for MgO, 0.7ml/s to 0.8ml/s for Al2O3 and 0.7 ml/s to 0.89 ml/s after the combination. Cumulative production increased from 7 litres to 8.96litres for MgO, 7 litres to 8litres for Al2O3 and 7litres to 8.9litres for the combination with increase in the mass percent concentration of the nanoparticles. This result establishes that nanoparticles and carbon dioxide gas injection activities undoubtedly improved the recovery of heavy crude oil from a depleted reservoir using enhanced oil recovery method.