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Experimental Study on Foamy Viscosity by Analysing CO2 Micro-Bubbles in Hexadecane

Received: 9 February 2014     Published: 20 March 2014
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Abstract

Continuous desorbing gas in the heavy oil generates lower viscosity with dispersing gas micro-bubbles. In this study, laboratory experiments were carried out to measure the viscosity of foamy hexadecane, typical component of heavy oil, and to investigate the CO2 gas micro-bubbles at ranged temperature of 20 – 50 °C and depressurization pressure of 1.0 – 6.0 MPa. Apparently, hexadecane mobility increases with increasing foam swelling. The viscosity ratio of foam vs. original hexadecane showed 0.90 – 0.70 with increasing foam swelling in the swelling range of 3.0 – 4.8%. The foam swelling is caused by dispersed gas micro-bubbles, and its viscosity was more reducible at either low temperature or high foam swelling based on present measurement results. The bubble distribution showed the large bubbles (approximately 50 µm in diameter) were coalesced but the micro-bubbles (approximately 5 µm in diameter) were stable under the shear of 1575 s-1, within 3 minutes of measuring. It shows that the micro-bubbles in smaller diameter have higher stability against the high shear rate. Therefore, generating foam by creating CO2 micro-bubbles is capable to make flow through the pore throats with viscosity reduction and improves oil recovery from non-mobile domain, such as aggregate and fine pores, by its swelling.

Published in International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering (Volume 2, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11
Page(s) 11-18
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Viscosity Ratio, Foamy Hexadecane, Temperature, Foam Swelling, and CO2 Micro-Bubble Distribution

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Chanmoly Or, Kyuro Sasaki Sasaki, Yuichi Sugai, Masanori Nakano, Motonao Imai. (2014). Experimental Study on Foamy Viscosity by Analysing CO2 Micro-Bubbles in Hexadecane. International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering, 2(2), 11-18. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11

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    ACS Style

    Chanmoly Or; Kyuro Sasaki Sasaki; Yuichi Sugai; Masanori Nakano; Motonao Imai. Experimental Study on Foamy Viscosity by Analysing CO2 Micro-Bubbles in Hexadecane. Int. J. Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2014, 2(2), 11-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11

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    AMA Style

    Chanmoly Or, Kyuro Sasaki Sasaki, Yuichi Sugai, Masanori Nakano, Motonao Imai. Experimental Study on Foamy Viscosity by Analysing CO2 Micro-Bubbles in Hexadecane. Int J Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2014;2(2):11-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11,
      author = {Chanmoly Or and Kyuro Sasaki Sasaki and Yuichi Sugai and Masanori Nakano and Motonao Imai},
      title = {Experimental Study on Foamy Viscosity by Analysing CO2 Micro-Bubbles in Hexadecane},
      journal = {International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering},
      volume = {2},
      number = {2},
      pages = {11-18},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ogce.20140202.11},
      abstract = {Continuous desorbing gas in the heavy oil generates lower viscosity with dispersing gas micro-bubbles. In this study, laboratory experiments were carried out to measure the viscosity of foamy hexadecane, typical component of heavy oil, and to investigate the CO2 gas micro-bubbles at ranged temperature of 20 – 50 °C and depressurization pressure of 1.0 – 6.0 MPa. Apparently, hexadecane mobility increases with increasing foam swelling. The viscosity ratio of foam vs. original hexadecane showed 0.90 – 0.70 with increasing foam swelling in the swelling range of 3.0 – 4.8%. The foam swelling is caused by dispersed gas micro-bubbles, and its viscosity was more reducible at either low temperature or high foam swelling based on present measurement results. The bubble distribution showed the large bubbles (approximately 50 µm in diameter) were coalesced but the micro-bubbles (approximately 5 µm in diameter) were stable under the shear of 1575 s-1, within 3 minutes of measuring. It shows that the micro-bubbles in smaller diameter have higher stability against the high shear rate. Therefore, generating foam by creating CO2 micro-bubbles is capable to make flow through the pore throats with viscosity reduction and improves oil recovery from non-mobile domain, such as aggregate and fine pores, by its swelling.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Experimental Study on Foamy Viscosity by Analysing CO2 Micro-Bubbles in Hexadecane
    AU  - Chanmoly Or
    AU  - Kyuro Sasaki Sasaki
    AU  - Yuichi Sugai
    AU  - Masanori Nakano
    AU  - Motonao Imai
    Y1  - 2014/03/20
    PY  - 2014
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11
    T2  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    JF  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    JO  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    SP  - 11
    EP  - 18
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2376-7677
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20140202.11
    AB  - Continuous desorbing gas in the heavy oil generates lower viscosity with dispersing gas micro-bubbles. In this study, laboratory experiments were carried out to measure the viscosity of foamy hexadecane, typical component of heavy oil, and to investigate the CO2 gas micro-bubbles at ranged temperature of 20 – 50 °C and depressurization pressure of 1.0 – 6.0 MPa. Apparently, hexadecane mobility increases with increasing foam swelling. The viscosity ratio of foam vs. original hexadecane showed 0.90 – 0.70 with increasing foam swelling in the swelling range of 3.0 – 4.8%. The foam swelling is caused by dispersed gas micro-bubbles, and its viscosity was more reducible at either low temperature or high foam swelling based on present measurement results. The bubble distribution showed the large bubbles (approximately 50 µm in diameter) were coalesced but the micro-bubbles (approximately 5 µm in diameter) were stable under the shear of 1575 s-1, within 3 minutes of measuring. It shows that the micro-bubbles in smaller diameter have higher stability against the high shear rate. Therefore, generating foam by creating CO2 micro-bubbles is capable to make flow through the pore throats with viscosity reduction and improves oil recovery from non-mobile domain, such as aggregate and fine pores, by its swelling.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

  • Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

  • Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

  • Research Center, Japanese Petroleum Exploration (JAPEX), Chiba, Japan

  • Research Center, Japanese Petroleum Exploration (JAPEX), Chiba, Japan

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