The effect of low salinity flooding of silica nanoparticles functionalized with (3 Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane on enhanced oil recovery

Abstract

Silica nanoparticles (SNPs) have been widely employed in the oil and gas industry for drilling, well cementing, workover procedures, wastewater cleanup, and oil production. Due to their 1 to 100 nm particlesizes, large specific surface area, high dispersibility, and variable physico-chemical properties, they canchange the wettability of reservoir rock and reduce interfacial tension between crude oil and low salinity brine phases. Functionalized SNPs has not been well-studied in amine-based oil recovery. This work functionalized the surface of SNPs with (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) to improve dispersion stability, change the wettability of sandstone, lower the IFT between oil and water, displace oil in a sand pack flooding setup at low salinity and ambient temperature conditions. FTIR identified functional groups, which validated functionalization by changing surface morphology. EDX validated the elemental composition with added nitrogen and carbon. Zeta potential confirmed stability. Analysis increased from -16 mV to +36.4 mV,and contact angle changed from 46.4° to 115.5°. the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 1.0 %wt was achieved at IFT of 8.5mN/m and 76% of the oil was recovered after flooding with APTES-SNF. APTES deposited its molecules on the negatively charged hydroxyl (-OH) groups of SNPs, causing electrostatic attraction forces. This increases oil recovery by stabilizing dispersion.