Investigation of the destruction of polymers used in EOR measures

01.08.2011 - 15.09.2011
Assigned research project
A common method of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) is polymer flooding. Hereby, produced water from oil production is mixed with polymers to increase its viscosity and is reinjected into the reservoir, so as to improve oil yield. The polymer used (polyacrylamide) must on the one hand comply with certain stability criteria (temperature, pH, etc.). On the other hand, it is this desired stability that brings problems at the end of the process, that is in the treatment of produced water for reinjection. In order to not negatively affect water treatment, the polymer should be removed from the produced water as completely as possible. It is the aim of this project to develop a suitable physical or chemical degradation process which also can be implemented with reasonable financial and technical effort. The success of the degradation process is monitored on the base of polymer size. This not only allows the characterization of the molecular weight distribution of the polymer, but also provides the opportunity to closely follow and refine the degradation process. The destruction processes considered here are oxidations under various experimental conditions, either used on their own or in combination with precipitation reactions (by addition of metal ions) are these will be investigated and optimized.

People

Project leader

Project personnel

Institute

Contract/collaboration

  • OMV Exploration & Produktion GmbH,

Research focus

  • Efficient Utilisation of Material Resources: 100%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
ÖlförderungOil production
Erhöhte ÖlausbeuteEnhanced Oil Recovery
ProduktionswasserProduced water
PolymerflutenPolymer flooding
GrößenausschlusschromatographieSize exclusion chromatography

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