Automatic dosing of surfactant for recovered hydrocarbon enhancement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016356142-A1
Application number	US-201414889039-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 31, 2014
Priority date	Dec 31, 2014
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems comprising a main tubular coupled to a pump and extending from a surface into a subterranean formation, wherein produced bulk fluid is pumped to the surface, and wherein the bulk fluid comprises at least water and a hydrocarbon, and has certain constituent parameters; a storage container for retaining the bulk fluid; a sampling tubular in fluid communication with the main tubular for sampling the bulk fluid, thereby forming at least one sampled fluid; and a dosing system coupled to the sampling tubular and configured to receive the sampled fluid, the dosing system configured to determine a constituent parameter of the sampled fluid, identify a type and concentration of separating surfactant to include in the bulk fluid to obtain a hydrophilic-lipophilic deviation (HLD) substantially equal to 0, and introduce the identified type and concentration of the separating surfactant into the storage container retaining the bulk fluid.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
producing a bulk fluid from a subterranean formation, the bulk fluid comprising at least water and a hydrocarbon, and having constituent parameters selected from the group consisting of salinity (S), water volume (W p ), hydrocarbon concentration (x), equivalent alkane carbon number (EACN), surfactant concentration y, and ionic surfactant characteristic curvature (C c ) or nonionic surfactant characteristic curvature (C cn ); sampling the bulk fluid produced from the subterranean formation, thereby forming at least one sampled fluid; manipulating the sampled fluid by adding at least one of a known component selected from the group consisting of added surfactant, added hydrocarbon, added salt, added water, and any combination thereof; determining at least one of the constituent parameters of the manipulated sampled fluid in combination with a surfactant composition based on obtaining a hydrophilic-lipophilic deviation (HLD) substantially equal to 0; determining at least two additional constituent parameters of the sampled fluid, such as V (volume of the sampled fluid); Sa j,i (amount of any added salt); Wa j,i (volume of any added water); xa j,i (volume of any added hydrocarbon); EACN j,i (EACN of any added hydrocarbon); ya 3,i (volume of any added surfactant); C c j.i (characteristic curvature of any added surfactant where the surfactant is ionic); and C cn j.i (characteristic curvature of any added surfactant where the surfactant is nonionic); identifying a type and concentration of separating surfactant to include in the bulk fluid where HLD is substantially equal to 0; and introducing the identified type and concentration of the separating surfactant into the bulk fluid.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of determining at least one of the constituent parameters of the manipulated sample fluid in combination with a surfactant composition based on obtaining a hydrophilic-lipophilic deviation (HLD) substantially equal to 0 is determined according to Equation A for an ionic surfactant composition and Equation B for a nonionic surfactant composition:
HLD=ln( S )− k *EACN+ c c −α T ( T− 25° C.)  Equation A
HLD= b ( S )− k *EACN+ c cn −c T ( T− 25° C.)  Equation B,

where S is salinity of sampled fluid; b is a salinity constant; EACN is equivalent alkane carbon number for the hydrocarbon in the sampled fluid; T is temperature of the sampled fluid; c c is characteristic curvature for the ionic surfactant composition; c cn is characteristic curvature for the nonionic surfactant composition; α T is a surfactant temperature constant for the ionic surfactant composition; and c T is a surfactant temperature constant for the nonionic surfactant composition;
the step of determining at least two additional constituent parameters of the sampled fluid is determined according to Equation C for the ionic surfactant composition and Equation D for the nonionic surfactant composition, where j represents the bulk fluid and i represents the sampled fluid having an HLD substantially equal to 0:

0
=

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(

S
*
V
*

W
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(

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C
c

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Assignees

• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Natali Sanja
• Dykstra Jason D
• Xue Yuzhen
• Sun Zhijie

Classifications

• C10G2300/201

  Impurities · CPC title

• C10G2300/1033

  Oil well production fluids · CPC title

• C10G2300/4037

  In-situ processes · CPC title

• E21B43/34 Primary

  Arrangements for separating materials produced by the well · CPC title

• C10G33/04 Primary

  with chemical means · CPC title