Use of Betaine-Based Gel and Its Potential Application in Enhanced Oil Recovery.
Gels 2022;
8:gels8060351. [PMID:
35735695 PMCID:
PMC9222820 DOI:
10.3390/gels8060351]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Revised: 05/26/2022] [Accepted: 06/01/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
In this paper, a betaine-based gel containing 2.0% erucamide propyl betaine (EAPB), 0.5% oleic acid amide propyl betaine (OAPB), and 0.1% KCl was prepared for use as a fracturing fluid. The performance evaluation showed that KCl may improve the temperature resistance and increase the viscosity of the optimized fracturing fluid. At 80 °C, the apparent viscosity of the viscoelastic surfactant (VES)-based fracturing fluid was approximately 50 mPa·s. Furthermore, the gel had high shear resistance, good viscosity stability, and high sand-carrying performance. After being sheared at 170 s−1 for 60 min, the reduction in viscosity was 13.6%. The viscosity of the gel was relatively stable at room temperature (27 °C) for one week. In a suspension containing 10% sand (particle size < 0.45 mm, density = 2.75 g cm−3), the settling velocity of proppant particles was 1.15 cm h−1. In addition, we detected that the critical micelle concentration of this gel was approximately 0.042 wt%. The viscosity could be reduced to <5 mPa·s at 60 °C within 1 h when 6.0% crude oil was present, and oil displacement experiments showed that the broken fracturing fluid can enhance the oil displacement rate up to 14.5%. This work may facilitate research on fracturing fluids and oil recovery.
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