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Experimental and mechanistic insights into enhancing shale oil recovery using supercritical CO2 and surfactant composite systems

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  • Gong, Houjian
  • Wu, Junru
  • Qin, Yuhang
  • Luo, Huihui
  • Li, Rongjia
  • Cai, Yaoxuan
  • Sun, Hai
  • Xu, Long
  • Dong, Mingzhe

Abstract

Efficient development of shale oil using CO2 flooding remains one of the most pressing challenges in the petroleum industry and environments protection. Here, the effect of a composite system consisted of alkyl polyether surfactant and CO2 on enhanced oil recovery was compared with CO2 flooding. Additionally, the influence of oil composition, injection mode, displacement pressure, surfactant structure, and the surfactant concentration in the CO2/surfactant composite system were investigated. The results show that the overall recovery of crude oil is notably lower than that of simulated oil, attributed to its complex composition. The CO2/C4(PO)6 composite system flooding following CO2 flooding can significantly improve the oil recovery, particularly from micropores. The direct composite system flooding is more effective than the CO2 flooding and subsequent composite system flooding, especially for the cores saturated with crude oil. Increasing the displacement pressure from 15 MPa to 25 MPa enhances the recovery of oil from micropores, macropores and overall oil by 2.74 %, 4.87 % and 3.33 %, respectively. This indicates that the higher pressure of the composite system can slightly improve the displacement effect. Among the composite systems respectively containing C4(PO)6, C8(PO)3 and C4(PO)3, the CO2/C4(PO)6 composite system performed the best in enhancing oil recovery, with the micropore recovery at 58.73 %, macropore recovery at 91.06 %, and overall oil recovery at 67.18 %. The CO2-philic and lipophilic properties of C4(PO)6 enable the composite system to achieve synergistic effects on interactions with oil, thereby enhancing shale oil recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Gong, Houjian & Wu, Junru & Qin, Yuhang & Luo, Huihui & Li, Rongjia & Cai, Yaoxuan & Sun, Hai & Xu, Long & Dong, Mingzhe, 2025. "Experimental and mechanistic insights into enhancing shale oil recovery using supercritical CO2 and surfactant composite systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:336:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225040472
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.138405
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