Oil displacement through a porous medium with a temperature gradient

TL;DR

This study examines how a temperature gradient influences oil recovery in porous media, revealing that positive gradients enhance recovery especially when the invading fluid is inviscid, with results applicable to 3D geometries.

Contribution

It introduces a pore-network model analyzing temperature effects on oil recovery, considering different viscosity ratios and extending findings to three-dimensional media.

Findings

Recovery increases with temperature difference for finite viscosity ratio.

Positive temperature gradient enhances recovery for inviscid invading fluid.

Results are applicable to three-dimensional porous media geometries.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of a temperature gradient on oil recovery in a two-dimensional pore-network model. The oil viscosity depends on temperature as, $\mu_o=exp(B/T)$, where $B$ is a physico-chemical parameter depending on the type of oil, and $T$ is the temperature. A temperature gradient is applied across the medium in the flow direction. Initially, the porous medium is saturated with oil and, then, another fluid is injected. We have considered two cases representing different injection strategies. In the first case, the invading fluid viscosity is constant (finite viscosity ratio) while in the second one, the invading fluid is inviscid (infinite viscosity ratio). Our results show that, for the case of finite viscosity ratio, recovery increases with $\Delta T$ independently on strength or sign of the gradient. For an infinite viscosity ratio, a positive temperature gradient is necessary to enhance recovery. Moreover, we show that, for $\Delta T>0$, the percentage of oil recovery generally decreases (increases) with $B$ for a finite (infinite) viscosity ratio. Finally, we also extend our results for infinite viscosity ratio to a three-dimensional porous media geometry.