# Preparation and Performance Evaluation of Environmentally Friendly Foam Hydrogel Based on Polyvinyl Alcohol/Organic Titanium Crosslinking Agent

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new eco-friendly foam hydrogel for oil field applications that effectively seals and modifies fluid flow with high efficiency.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is the development of an environmentally friendly foam gel system using polyvinyl alcohol and an organic titanium crosslinker.

## Key findings

- The foam gel system shows stable performance in the temperature range of 80°C to 130°C.
- At 90°C, the foam gel remains stable for 340 days with minimal strength variation.
- The system achieves a blocking efficiency of up to 96.36% in sealing sand-filled tube models.

## Abstract

Foam and hydrogel profile control are commonly utilized water-blocking and profile modification techniques in oil fields. This study integrates a foam system with a gel system, employing an organic titanium crosslinking agent to crosslink polyvinyl alcohol, thereby forming a gel system. Concurrently, a gas-evolving agent is incorporated into the system to induce in situ foaming, thereby creating an environmentally benign foam gel system. The fundamental constituents of this system comprise 2 wt% to 5 wt% polyvinyl alcohol, 2 wt% to 4 wt% crosslinker, and 0.3 wt% to 0.9 wt% gas-generating agent. By varying the amounts of each component, the strength grade, gelation time, and foaming volume of the foam gel can be effectively adjusted. The results of the temperature resistance performance evaluation indicate that within the temperature range of 80 °C to 130 °C, the gelation performance of the foam gel is stable and good. At 90 °C, the foam gel can remain stable for 340 days with minimal strength variation. The plugging experiments indicate that the formulated foam gel system exhibits superior injectability and can effectively seal the sand-filled tube model, achieving a blocking efficiency of up to 96.36%.