000			01990nab a2200205 4500
005			20260520000839.0
008			260224s2009 xxu
245	0	0	_aNumerical simulation of displacement mechanisms for enhancing heavy oil recovery furing alkaline flooding
260			_a _b _cnov./dic. 2009
270			_a09/06/2010 ; 09/06/2010
300			_a8 p. ; 5995-6002
520			_aTranscripción del resumen del autor. In this paper, a simulation technique has been developed and successfully applied to numerically simulate the experimentally determined displacement mechanisms governing alkaline flooding for enhancing oil recovery in heavy oil reservoirs. The measured pressure drop and oil recovery during the alkaline flooding processes have been found to increase as the alkaline concentration increases. The increase in pressure drop is mainly due to in situ formation of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions, and oil recovery is thus improved because of the blockage of the high-permeability zones. The interfacial tension between heavy oil and alkaline solutions, viscosity of the in situ generated W/O emulsion, and relative permeabilities during waterflooding and alkaline flooding processes have been experimentally determined. An excellent agreement between the measured and simulated pressure drop and cumulative oil production are obtained by taking both the measured viscosity of W/O emulsions and the relative permeability into account. In particular, the in situ generation of W/O emulsion during alkaline flooding in heavy oil reservoirs has been numerically found to occur in the high-permeability zones. This finding is consistent with the experimentally determined displacement mechanisms (i.e., in situ generation of W/O emulsion) in the literature.
581			_a6
773	0		_tEnergy & fuels _g23
942			_cARTICULO
100	1		_aArhuoma, Mohamed _942397
100	1		_aYang, Daoyong _924467
100	1		_aDong, Mingzhe _936111
999			_c170844 _d170844