Enhanced oil recovery with Janus nanoparticles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12091611-B2
Application number	US-202318487571-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 16, 2023
Priority date	Jul 24, 2020
Publication date	Sep 17, 2024
Grant date	Sep 17, 2024

Abstract

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) including with a lamellar phase having Janus nanoparticles, petroleum surfactant, crude oil, and water and with additional water to give the flooding fluid that may be pumped through a wellbore into a subterranean formation to affect a property of hydrocarbon in the subterranean formation via contact of the flooding fluid with the hydrocarbon.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of synthesizing Janus nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), comprising:
forming in a vessel a lamellar phase comprising water layers, crude oil layers, and a zwitterionic petroleum surfactant;
reacting chemical reagents in the lamellar phase in the vessel to form Janus nanoparticles at interfaces of the water layers with the crude oil layers; and
collecting the lamellar phase from the vessel for distribution to an EOR application comprising nanofluid flooding via the Janus nanoparticles and surfactant flooding via the zwitterionic petroleum surfactant.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein reacting the chemical reagents comprises:
incorporating a hydrophilic chemical reagent in the water layers;
incorporating a hydrophobic chemical reagent in the crude oil layers; and
allowing the first chemical reagent to react with the second chemical reagent at the interfaces to form the Janus nanoparticles at the interfaces.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the Janus nanoparticles comprise Janus silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) nanoparticles.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the zwitterionic petroleum surfactant comprises cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine (CANS) or cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB), or a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein collecting the lamellar phase does not comprise separating the Janus nanoparticles from the lamellar phase, wherein nanofluid flooding via the Janus nanoparticles to reduce interfacial tension (IFT) at crude oil-water interfaces in a subterranean formation, and wherein the Janus nanoparticles to adsorb onto crude oil-water interfaces in the subterranean formation.

6. A method of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), comprising:
forming in a reactor vessel a lamellar phase comprising water layers, crude oil layers, and a petroleum surfactant;
reacting chemical reagents in the lamellar phase in the reactor vessel to form Janus nanoparticles at interfaces of the water layers with the crude oil layers;
mixing water with the lamellar phase to give a flooding fluid comprising nanofluid;
providing the flooding fluid via a pump through a wellbore into a subterranean formation; and
flooding the subterranean formation as EOR, wherein the flooding comprises nanofluid flooding via the Janus nanoparticles.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the petroleum surfactant comprises a zwitterionic petroleum surfactant.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the zwitterionic petroleum surfactant comprises cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine (CANS) or cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB), or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the flooding comprises surfactant flooding via the petroleum surfactant.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the Janus nanoparticles comprises Janus metal-oxide nanoparticles.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein the Janus nanoparticles comprises Janus graphene oxide nanosheets.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

• Wang Wei
• Chang Sehoon
• Abdel-Fattah Amr I

Classifications

• C09K2208/10

  Nanoparticle-containing well treatment fluids · CPC title

• C09K2208/06

  Structured surfactants, i.e. well drilling or treating fluids with a lamellar or spherulitic phase · CPC title

• C09K8/845

  containing inorganic compounds · CPC title

• C09K8/604

  Polymeric surfactants · CPC title

• B82Y30/00

  Nanotechnology for materials or surface science, e.g. nanocomposites · CPC title