POLYMER GEL ADSORPTION EFFECT ON RELATIVE PERMEABILITY MODIFICATION FOR WATER SHUTOFF TREATMENT

The effect of polymer gel adsorption on polymer gel performance in porous media for water shutoff treatment was studied by considering the residualresistance factor and the thickness of adsorbed polymer layer. The gelling system was composed of sulfonated polyacrylamide (AN125VLM) andchromium triacetate as copolymer and crosslinker, respectively. Coreflooding tests were performed on sand packed media with various permeabilities. Thereduction of the relative permeability of water to oil for each time confirmed the disproportionate permeability reduction effect. The results showed thatby increasing the permeability of sand packed, more polymer gel was injected into the sand packed, so the pressure drop increased for lower flow rates of water in contrast to the first sand packed. The residual resistance factor was about 85 times higher in thesand packed with higher permeability which was expected due to the increasing of the thickness of adsorbed layer of polymer gel in comparison with thesand packed with lower permeability. The thickness of adsorbed layer of polymer gel in the sand packed with higher permeability was about 2024 nm while it was 650 nm for the sand packed with lower permeability.

Keywords:

Polymer gel , Permeability , Coreflooding , Residual resistance factor , Disproportionate permeability reduction , Polymer gel adsorption , Thickness of adsorbed layer