Green high performance systems for Enhanced Oil Recovery

In order to meet the growing energy needs in today’s society, petroleum recovery from existing reservoirs must increase. Overall, only about 40% of the petroleum present in known reservoirs is economically recovered with established technologies (primary-recovery methods using natural reservoir forces, and secondary-recovery methods by water/gas flooding). In order to increase recovery, so-called tertiary-recovery methods are required, also referred to as enhanced oil recovery or EOR.

The objective of the GreenEOR project is to contribute to enhanced oil recovery in a sustainable manner, by developing a novel series of green fluids for chemical EOR applications based on nanocellulose, alone or in combination with other EOR components.

Nanocellulose is a group of nanoscaled particles produced from wood, and is thus a sustainable and green resource. Nanocellulose has a promising potential as a green flooding additive due to several properties such as e.g. excellent viscosifying and shear thinning properties, hydrophilic nature, excellent possibilities for chemical modification and also robustness compared to dissolved polymers. The potential of nanocellulose as an EOR additive will be explored in the GreenEOR project. The development will depend on close cooperation between different research areas comprising nanocellulose, surface interaction, rheology and core flooding.

The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway through the Petromaks 2 programme.

Green EOR in electronic media:

160225: NTNU Tech Zone: Did you know that the North Sea is full of half-eaten apples?

150223: Norske forskere skal finne ut om trefibre kan presse ut mer olje av reservoarene. Teknisk Ukeblad.

Published articles in Web of science (ISI) :Temperature stability of nanocellulose dispersions, Carbohydrate Polymers 2017, 157: 114 – 121.

Conferences

161123: Flow of nanocellulose in porous media. Oral presentation: Reidun Cecilie Aadland. First symposium on advanced research and education within carbon storage and enhanced oil recovery, Meråker, Norway, 22.-23. November 2016.

161020: Surfactant modified nanocelluloses for enhanced oil recovery. Poster presentation: Trygve Jakobsen, Sébastien Simon, Kristin Syverud, Kristofer Paso. 6th Recent advances in cellulose nanotechnology research seminar, Trondheim, Norway, 19.-20. October 2016.

160822: Injectivity and retention of nanocellulose dispersions in Berea sandstone. Poster presentation: Reidun Cecilie Aadland, Katherine Rose Aurand, Ellinor B. Heggset, Kristin Syverud, Ole Torsæter. 2016 Annual symposium – Society of core analysts (SCA), Snowmass, Colorado, USA, 21.-26. August

160614: Characterization of the stability and phase behavior of nanocellulose dispersions intended for improving oil recovery. Poster presentation: Reidun Cecilie Aadland, Katherine Rose Aurand, Ellinor Bævre Heggset, Kristin Syverud and Ole Torsæter. 2016 International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials, Grenoble, France

160614: Surfactant modified nanocelluloses for enhanced oil recovery. Poster presentation: Trygve Jakobsen, Sébastien Simon, Kristin Syverud, Kristofer Paso. 2016 International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials, Grenoble, France

160510: Økt oljeutvinning ved hjelp av nanocellulose. Oral presentation: Ellinor Heggset. Nordisk treforedlingssymposium, Trondheim, Norway, 10.-11. May 2016.

151125: Nanocellulose – til nytte for oljebransjen. Oral presentation: Kristin Syverud. Treforedlingsforum 2015, Oslo, November 24.-25., 2015.

151019: Temperature stability of nanocellulose dispersions. EPNOE – International polysaccharide conference. 19-22 October. Wasaw, Poland.

150907: Nanocellulose – A promising green flooding additive for Enhanced Oil Recovery. 36th IEA-EOR Collaborative Project Workshop & Symposium, 7-11 September, Sapporo, Japan.