Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mixing and Mass Transfer in Multicontact Miscible Displacements

  • Published:
Transport in Porous Media Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the accuracy of some physical models that are frequently used to describe and interpret dispersive mixing and mass transfer in compositional reservoir simulation. We have designed a quaternary analog fluid system (alcohol–water–hydrocarbon) that mimics the phase behavior of CO2-hydrocarbon mixtures at high pressure and temperature. A porous medium was designed using PolyTetraFlouroEthylene (PTFE) materials to ensure that the analog oil acts as the wetting phase, and the properties of the porous medium were characterized in terms of porosity, permeability and dispersivity. Relative permeability and interfacial tension (IFT) measurements were also performed to delineate interactions between the fluid system and the porous medium. The effluent concentrations from two-component first-contact miscible (FCM) displacement experiments exhibit a tailing behavior that is attributed to imperfect sweep of the porous medium: A feature that is not captured by normal dispersion models. To represent this behavior in displacement calculations, we use dual-porosity (DP) models including mass transfer between flowing and stagnant porosities. Two 4-component two-phase displacement experiments were performed at near-miscible and multicontact miscible (MCM) conditions and the effluent concentrations were interpreted by numerical calculations. We demonstrate that the accuracy of our displacement calculations relative to the experimental observations is sensitive to the selected models for dispersive mixing, mass transfer between flowing and stagnant porosities, and IFT scaling of relative permeability functions. We also demonstrate that numerical calculations substantially agree with the experimental observations for some physical models with limited need for model parameter adjustment. The combined experimental and modeling effort presented in this work identifies and explores the impact of a set of physical mechanisms (dispersion and mass transfer) that must be upscaled adequately for field-scale displacement calculations in DP systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

d p :

Particle diameter

D o :

Molecular diffusion

f :

Flowing fraction

F :

IFT scaling factor

FF:

Formation factor

K ij :

Effective dispersion coefficient of component i in phase j

K l :

Longitudinal dispersion coefficient

n :

Corey exponent

S :

Saturation

S gc :

Critical gas saturation

S or :

Residual oil saturation

t :

Time

x :

Length of tie line (mass fraction)

x ij :

Mole fraction of component i in phase j

z :

Direction along packed column

α :

Longitudinal dispersivity

β :

IFT scaling exponent

θ i :

Mass transfer coefficient of component i

ρ :

Molar density

σ :

Interfacial tension

σ 0 :

Reference interfacial tension

υ :

Average linear velocity

φ :

Porosity

References

  • Abrams D.S., Prausnitz J.M.: Statistical thermodynamics of liquid mixtures: a new expression for the excess Gibbs energy of partly or completely miscible systems. AIChE J. 21, 116–128 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Wahaibi Y.M., Muggeridge A.H., Grattoni C.A.: Experimental and numerical studies of gas/oil multicontact miscible displacements in homogeneous and crossbedded porous media. SPE J. 12, 62–76 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Amaefule J.O., Handy L.L.: The effect of interfacial tensions on relative oil/water permeabilities of consolidated porous media. SPE J. 22, 371–381 (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  • Arya A., Hewett T.A., Larson R.G., Lake L.W.: Dispersion and reservoir heterogeneity. SPE Reserv. Eng. 3, 139–148 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bahramian A., Danesh A.: Prediction of liquid–liquid interfacial tension in multi-component systems. Fluid Phase Equilib. 221, 197–205 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker L.E.: Effects of dispersion and dead-end pore volume in miscible flooding. SPE J. 17, 219–227 (1977)

    Google Scholar 

  • Batycky, R.P.: Experimental verification of MOC theory for three and four component systems. MS thesis, Standford University (1994)

  • Bijeljic, B., Blunt, M.J.: A physically based description of dispersion in porous media. In: Paper SPE 102869 Presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 24–27 September 2006

  • Bretz R.E., Orr F.M.: Interpretation of miscible displacements in laboratory cores. SPE Reserv. Eng. 2, 492–500 (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Coats K.H.: An equation of state compositional model. SPE J. 20, 363–376 (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  • Coats K.H., Smith B.D.: Dead-end pore volume and dispersion in porous media. SPE J. 4, 73–84 (1964)

    Google Scholar 

  • Delshad M., Macalister D.J., Pope G.A., Rouse B.A.: Multiphase dispersion and relative permeability experiments. SPE J. 25, 524–534 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Flores B.E., Trejo A., Aguila-Hernandez J.: Liquid–liquid phase behaviour, liquid–liquid density, and interfacial tensions of multicomponent systems at 298 K. Fluid Phase Equilib. 255, 147–159 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garmeh G., Johns R.T., Lake L.W.: Pore-scale simulation of dispersion in porous media. SPE J. 14, 559–567 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoteit H., Firoozabadi A.: Numerical modeling of diffusion in fractured media for gas-injection and recycling schemes. SPE J. 14, 323–337 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jessen K., Stenby E.H., Orr F.M.: Interplay of phase behavior and numerical dispersion in finite-difference compositional simulation. SPE J. 9, 193–201 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • Johns R.T., Fayers F.J., Orr F.M.: Effect of gas enrichment and dispersion on nearly miscible displacements in condensing/vaporizing drives. SPE Adv. Tech. Ser. 2, 26–34 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Johns R.T., Sah P., Solano R.: Effect of dispersion on local displacement efficiency for multicomponent enriched-gas floods above the MME. SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering 5, 4–10 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ku H.C.: Densities, viscosities, refractive indexes, and surface tensions for binary and ternary mixtures of tetrahydrofuran, 2-propanol, and 2,2,4-trimethylpentane. J. Chem. Eng. Data 53, 566–573 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lake L.W.: Enhanced Oil Recovery. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  • Martins R.J., Cardoso J.E., Barcia O.E.: Calculation of viscosity of ternary and quaternary liquid mixtures. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 40, 1271–1275 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrow N.R., Chatzis I., Taber J.J.: Entrapment and mobilization of residual oil in bead packs. SPE Reserv. Eng. 3, 927–934 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  • Orr F.M.: Analytical Theory of Gas Injection Processes. Tie Line Publications, Denmark (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Otero J.J., Comesana J.F., Correa J.M., Correa A.: Liquid–liquid equilibria of the system water + 2-propanol + 2,2,4-trimethylpentane at 25 °C. J. Chem. Eng. Data 45, 898–901 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perkins T.K., Johnston O.C.: A review of diffusion and dispersion in porous media. SPE J. 3, 70–84 (1963)

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters E.K., Gharbi R., Afzal N.: A look at dispersion in porous media through computed tomography imaging. J. Pet. Sci. Eng. 15, 23–31 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rastegar R., Jessen K.: Measurement and modeling of liquid–liquid equilibrium for ternary and quaternary mixtures of water, methanol, 2-propanol, and 2,2,4-trimethylpentane at 293.2 K J. Chem. Eng. Data 56, 278–281 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahimi, M., Heiba, A.A., Hughes, B.D., Davis, H.T., Scriven, L.E.: Dispersion in flow through porous media. In: Paper SPE 10969 Presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 26–29 September 1982

  • Schulze-Makuch D.: Longitudinal dispersivity data and implications for scaling behaviour. Ground Water 43, 443–456 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solano R., Johns R.T., Lake L.W.: Impact of reservoir mixing on recovery in enriched-gas drives above the minimum miscibility enrichment. SPE Reserv. Eng. Eval. 4, 358–365 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  • Soliman K., Marschall E.: Viscosity of selected binary, ternary, and quaternary liquid mixtures. J. Chem. Eng. Data 35, 375–381 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka Y., Matsuda Y., Fujiwara H., Kubota H., Makita T.: Viscosity of (water + alcohol) mixtures under high pressure. Int. J. Thermophy. 8, 147–163 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh B.W., Orr F.M.: Prediction of miscible flood performance: the effect of dispersion on composition paths in ternary systems. In Situ 14, 19–47 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou D., Fayers F.J., Orr F.M.: Scaling of multiphase flow in simple heterogeneous porous media. SPE Reserv. Eng. 12, 173–178 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Hasan Shojaei & Kristian Jessen

  2. Chevron Energy Technology Company, Bakersfield, CA, USA

    Reza Rastegar

Authors
  1. Hasan Shojaei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Reza Rastegar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kristian Jessen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristian Jessen.

Additional information

Reza Rastegar is now with Chevron Energy Technology Company. This work was done when he was a PhD student at USC.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Shojaei, H., Rastegar, R. & Jessen, K. Mixing and Mass Transfer in Multicontact Miscible Displacements. Transp Porous Med 94, 837–857 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-012-0027-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-012-0027-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation