Mobilization of kaolinite fines in porous media

doi:10.1016/0166-6622(87)80339-6

Colloids and Surfaces

Volume 27, Issues 1–3, October 1987, Pages 219-241

https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-6622(87)80339-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

Fines mobilization in porous media can lead to drastic changes in the permeability of oil reservoirs. The understanding of the mechanism of the release of fines from pore network will provide the information necessary to minimize formation damage during oil production. Thus, the main objective of the present work was to analyze the forces acting on fine particles near a representative sand grain. This was done by evaluating the hydrodynamic and colloidal forces between fines and sand grain surfaces. The comparison between them provided the criteria for determining the critical conditions for mobilization of fines. The analysis showed that for kaolinite particles, mobilization was dependent on the chemistry of the aqueous fluids present or injected into an argillaceous porous medium. The analysis was subsequently tested by comparing the predicted and the experimentally reported critical electrolyte concentration at which permeability reduction in oil reservoirs occurs due to fines mobilization. Predictions were in fairly good agreement with experimentally reported data, indicating that permeability reduction in oil reservoirs can be minimized by controlling the chemistry of the injected fluids.

Direct microscopic observations using a packed microcell invaded by clay suspension were carried out in order to verify the type of interactions between kaolinite particles and sand grain surfaces. Most of the observations were in good agreement with the DLVO theory.

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Kaolinite clays are the most widespread natural fines attached to the rock surface; they can be mobilised by the flow with further migration in porous spaces, straining in thin pore throats and causing significant decline in the rock permeability. We conducted mathematical and laboratory studies of kaolinite detachment from solid substrates in visualisation cells. The mechanical equilibrium of the attached particles in the creeping flow was described by the torque balance. For uniform particles and substrates, this model presents fines detachment using only two rates that correspond to particles in primary and secondary energy minima, i.e., the attached concentration versus velocity is a piecewise-constant function. To observe this maximum retention function, we saturated a single-channel micromodel visualisation cell with a transparent top with kaolinite particles; it was then subjected to a flow with a piecewise-constant increasing rate. Images of the remaining attached fines were filmed after each rate increase. All the tests exhibit gradual fines detachment. To explain the phenomenon, we assumed a probabilistic distribution of the properties of the particles and the substrate. For two-parametric probability distribution functions, it adds the standard deviations to the list of model parameters. The continuous fines detachment versus velocity was highly matched by the torque balance equation with probabilistically distributed coefficients. The match allowed restoring probabilistic distributions of the selected model parameters from the measured maximum retention function. The sensitivity of the detachment rate to properties follows a decreasing order: semi-major axis, aspect ratio, lever arm ratio, and zeta potential. This work fundamentally advances lab-based mathematical modelling of colloidal detachment from solid surfaces by developing stochastic torque-balance equation, where standard deviations of the model coefficients are tuning / matching parameters along with their mean values. This approach allows determining the probabilistic distributions of the model coefficients from the image processing, and also calculating the attached concentration variation within six standard deviations of each parameter, permitting placing the model parameters in the order of their effect on particle detachment.
Impact of shape on particle detachment in linear shear flows
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Filtration studies are thus ineffective to study the impact of shape on solely the detachment behaviour. Specific to detachment, Cerda (1987) modelled the DLVO interaction of kaolinite clays as plates, while Mahmood et al. (2001) consequently added half-cylinder edges to the plates to account for side-on attachment. By accounting for shape and orientation, the models were reported to be in good agreement with experiment results for kaolinite detachment in porous media formed by glass beads, under varying salinities and pH. However, the investigations considered only the impact of shape on the adhesion forces, claiming that the hydrodynamic forces of drag and lift are negligible (Cerda 1987).
Transport and detachment of colloidal particles with irregular shapes occur in geology, environmental, and water-resource engineering. We investigated the effect of shape and aspect ratio on the detachment of non-spherical microparticles attached to a plane substrate, in Couette linear shear flow, under favourable conditions. The detachment conditions were determined by the mechanical equilibrium of drag, lift, gravity and adhesion forces acting on the particle. Drag and lift were evaluated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), introducing the shape-dependent corrections into traditional formulae for spherical particles. The adhesive particle–surface force is determined by the Surface Element Integration (SEI) method, which also corrects the classical DLVO expression. The forces exerted on spheroids and cylinders can significantly differ from spheres and their detachment exhibit non-monotonic dependencies with aspect ratio. Direct visualisation experiments were performed by piecewise-constant change of flow velocity and the observed detachment were in good agreement with the mechanical-equilibrium based predictions.
Petrographic and diagenetic study of siliciclastic Jurassic sediments from the northeastern margin of Africa: Implication for reservoir quality
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Northeastern Egypt is one of the most important exposures in the Middle East and North Africa to study Jurassic facies. The present study analyzes 130 thin sections from a subsurface well (Well X) in the northern Gulf of Suez, and from two surface sections at Gebel Maghara (north Sinai) and Khashm Elgalala (North Eastern Desert), Egypt for petrographic and lithofacies analyses. In the present study, detailed petrographic analysis is used as a tool to better understand the diagenetic history of the Early to Late Jurassic siliciclastic sediments; the identified diagenetic elements are inferred concerning the reservoir quality. For this, sidewall cores, scanning electron microscopy and thin sections are used to detail detrital and authigenic mineralogy; these are then used to infer the depositional framework, factors controlling reservoir characteristics, and the operating diagenetic processes. The inferred depositional paleoenvironment is a prograding and retrograding linear siliciclastic shoreline within a shallow marine carbonate platform with coal swamps and occasional cross-cutting rivers. Diagenesis, petrographical characteristics and depositional conditions are the main factors controlling continental and marine reservoir architecture. The diagenetic processes affecting siliciclastic sedimentation are near the surface, shallow to intermediate burial, and deep burial cycles with different pore fluid filling at each stage. The siliciclastic sediments have been categorized into seven depositional lithofacies - calcareous claystone (S1a), carbonaceous claystone (S1b), siltstone (S2), planar and trough cross-bedded sandstone (S3), coarse, well rounded, large scale trough cross-bedded sandstone (S4), ooid sandstone (S5) and coal (C). Grain compaction, various phases of syntaxial quartz overgrowth, carbonate cementation and replacement, creation of dissolution porosity, and clay authigenesis are the most important diagenetic processes that have affected the siliciclastic continental and marine sediments. Many different diagenetic events, both destructive and constructive, have modified porosity. The destructive events include compaction and cementation (of silica, kaolinite, ferroan dolomite, Illite, and anhydride). The constructive events include silica cementation, feldspar dissolution, and ferroan dolomite dissolution. Additionally, present data also suggest that the continental sandstones have excellent reservoir quality whereas the marine sandstones have good to very good reservoir potential. Despite the excellent reservoir quality of the continental sandstone lithofacies, the effective stratigraphic seal is leaking. The interbedded calcareous and carbonaceous claystone lithofacies may provide an excellent stratigraphic seal for these siliciclastic reservoirs. Based on these analyses, a model is proposed that can be used as a template for subsurface Jurassic reservoir characterization and reservoir discrimination.
A multidisciplinary study of diagenesis and pore fluid evolution in frontier basins; an example from Canterbury and Great South basins, New Zealand
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For example, extensive kaolinitisation will be detrimental to reservoir quality because it increases pore tortuosity by blocking many of the larger pores (e.g., Martin et al., 1994; Higgs et al., 2017). High volumes of kaolinite can also cause severe formation damage during drilling due to re-mobilisation of the fines and consequently causing production losses (e.g., Cerda, 1987; Wilson et al., 2014). Conversely, dissolution of feldspar can result in secondary porosity, and this has the capacity to locally enhance reservoir quality (e.g., Schmidt and McDonald, 1979; Bjørlykke, 1984; Surdam et al., 1984; Giles and Marshall, 1986; Higgs et al., 2013).
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Mobilization of kaolinite fines in porous media

Abstract

J. Colloid Interface Sci.

J. Colloid Interface Sci.

Colloids Surfaces

J. Colloid Interface Sci.

J. Colloid Interface Sci.

Adv. Colloid Interface Sci.

J. Colloid Interface Sci.

Adv. Colloid Interface Sci.

J. Colloid Interface Sci.

J. Colloid Interface Sci.

Chem. Eng. Sci.

Chem. Eng. Sci.

J. Pet. Technol.

J. Pet. Technol.

Role of Clays in Enhanced Recovery of Petroleum

Annual Report Fiscal Year 1979–1980