Dear Readers,

While writing my twitter threads earlier this week, I was surprised to find out that hydrogels were being used in oil recovery. I mean tissue engineering, bioadhesives, soft robotics, and cosmetics all sound quite expected. But the petroleum industry? That’s a first for me.

So in this edition, I’m going to highlight four papers from recent years where hydrogels were used in the petroleum industry. You might see related terms like enhanced oil recovery appearing. We’ll tackle them as we go along.

Enjoy.

In Brief

• Being surprised that hydrogels are being used in the oil industry.

• Then finding four latest papers about it.

Research Updates

A simulation study on hydrogel performance for enhanced oil recovery using phase‑field method

• Hydrogels are increasingly being used in oil recovery processes to control the flow of fluids in porous media. A pH-sensitive hydrogel microsphere was synthesized and effectively increased the oil recovery factor in experimental studies.

• A phase-field approach was used to simulate the process of hydrogel injection for enhanced oil recovery and obtain tuning parameters of the model. Results indicated a good agreement between experimental and modeling studies of oil recovery factor.

• Hydrogel solution is injected into the reservoir to block high permeability areas, allowing trapped oil in low permeability regions to be swept by water flooding. The mechanisms of hydrogel movement in porous media include breaking, deformation, and blocking.

• I try to imagine a leaky pipe, where we plug the holes with silicone sealant. This way the “water” inside flows smoothly, or in this case the oil!

• The use of a phase-field approach to simulate the process of hydrogel injection allows for a better understanding of the mechanisms involved and can help optimize the process for maximum oil recovery. This could lead to more efficient and cost-effective oil recovery techniques.

Self-healing hydrogels and their action mechanism in oil–gas drilling and development engineering: A systematic review and prospect

• This review begins with a survey of covalent and non-covalent hydrogels. But keep reading because section 4 contains a thorough explanation of oil-gas drilling. Specifically, how hydrogels are used in it.

• I’d like to highlight a few key mechanisms you’ll learn from reading the full article:

  • Blocking agents

  • Lost circulation control

  • Wellbore strengthening

  • Profile control

  • Water shutoff

• With self healing being a buzzword in the gels community to make the material more durable, I think this review does much to encourage extending the concept to oil&gas.

Guar Gum-Based Hydrogels as Potent Green Polymers for Enhanced Oil Recovery in High-Salinity Reservoirs

• Biodegradable hydrogels were designed from guar gum (GG), acrylamide, and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS).

• These gels were evaluated as potential candidates for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) under high-salinity conditions.

• Results showed that both GG-hydrogel (GH) and GH-Biochar hydrogel (GHB) displayed a shear-thinning performance and were effective biopolymers for enhanced oil recovery in high-salinity reservoirs.

• Shear thinning is a phenomenon where the viscosity decreases at under higher shear movement. It’s like ketchup where the flow is faster when you apply pressure.

• At the optimum concentration, GH flooding achieved maximum oil recoveries of 70.53% and 72.11% in secondary and tertiary recovery processes, respectively, while GHB flooding increased the amount of oil recovery by 8.95% in tertiary recovery compared to waterflooding.

Ultrastable Hydrogel for Enhanced Oil Recovery Based on Double-Groups Cross-Linking

• Syneresis is a common problem in oil recovery which decreases the efficiency of profile modification. It’s a term borrowed from chemistry that describes the extraction of liquid from a gel.

• The authors found that sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) was an effective syneresis inhibitor for the hydrogel formulated with acrylamide copolymer of acryloyloxyethyl trimethylammonium chloride (AM/DAC).

• Results showed that AM/DAC cross-links with STPP on the basis of the hydrolysis reaction of the ester group and STPP, whereby a new bond of C−O−P is formed.

• This new bond led to an increase in viscosity and hydrophilicity of AM/DAC, and improved stability of grid structure, enhancing water-holding capacity of hydrogel, leading to a decrease in hydrogel syneresis and increase in water-shutoff efficiency.

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