Chemical EOR
1. Will it remain feasible to quantify the dispersion of the injected chemicals (Alkaline / Surfactant / Polymer) – in the absence of reproducing the ‘true fluid velocity field’ in a petroleum reservoir?
2. How exactly to correlate the findings of the laboratory-scale parameters such as IFT, contact-angle and wettability – which is associated with a size - which is much smaller than an individual pore-size, given the fact that the fictitious Darcy velocity remains to be viewed as the average of the true velocity over a reservoir porous volume - that is small relative to the reservoir length, width and thickness - but should remain larger relative to the individual pores (REV)?
3. Whether the concept of REV (Representative Elementary Volume) has ever been conceptualized clearly or verified experimentally in a real field-scale heterogeneous petroleum reservoir with multi-phase flow of fluids (oil-water and oil-water-gas)?
4. Will it remain feasible to quantify the ‘random molecular diffusion’ and ‘mechanical dispersion’ (resulting from the movement of the injected chemicals – below the REV scale - moving in a complex, tortuous paths leading to the additional mixing) of the injected chemicals associated with a chemical EOR (as against specifying a single value of ‘hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient’)?
5. Can we expect ‘Fickian dispersion’ of the injected chemicals – nearer to the injection well? If not, how to estimate the travel distance - required by the injected chemicals - before Fickian conditions occur?
6. How to deduce a ‘REV Dispersivity’ – given the vertical variation of horizontal permeabilities – for a finite reservoir thickness?
7. Feasible to deduce the ‘Reservoir Macro-Dispersivity’ – given the length of the reservoir? Even otherwise, will it remain meaningful, if we happen to apply the full reservoir macro-dispersion approach – nearer to the injection well – in chemical EOR applications?
8. Whether the ‘Macro-dispersion approach’ – ‘considering the permeability variations above the REV scale’ would remain feasible in a petroleum reservoir?
9. Whether the idea of scale-dependent macro-dispersion would remain as a conceptual artifact for describing multi-dimensional fluid flow in a petroleum reservoir?
Yes. You might A) drill holes to sample the various areas, B) place many fiber optic probes with reflective ends that respond to the chemical(s), or C) place broadcasting monitors that report the presence of the material you can follow the dispersion of the additive. Of course this may not be economically feasible, but if works, please donate the royalties to support young technical students.
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