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Application of Nanotechnology for
Enhancing Oil Recovery: Nanofluids/
Smart Fluids
Dr. Narendra Kumar Agnihotra
TCE QSTP-LLC, Doha, Qatar
Email: nkagnihotra@tce.co.in
Offshore Middle East Conference 21-23 January, 2013, Doha, Qatar

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World Oil Scenario
 Proven oil reserves currently stand at 1,197.7 billion barrels
 ~ 81% of total proven oil reserve available in the world
 ~ 7.0x1012 barrel of oil will remain in oilfields
Source: OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin, 2012

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 Only 40-50% oil can be recovered through available technologies
Secondary
 Injecting fluids to increasing the pressure
Tertiary
 Injecting steam to heating oil
and reduce viscosity
 Pumping CO2 to reduce
Pressure & reduce viscosity
Other stages
 Injecting Chemical agents/
Polymer Surfactants etc to
reduce surface tension,
wettability, interfacial tension etc
Primarily  10-15% recovery by buoyancy force
State of Art Technologies

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What is Nanotechnology?
1 Nanometer = 10-9 meter
- Billionth part of meter
 Control / manipulation of materials on an atomic / molecular scale
- Normally dealing with sizes of 1 to 100 nanometers
- Fabrication of device / system within the nanometer length scale
 Nanotechnology is
Engineering with
molecules and atoms

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Applications: Oil & Gas Industry
 Better Equipment
 Nanotubes :Lighter, stronger and
corrosion-resistant structural materials
in platforms for offshore drilling
 Silicon carbide, a ceramic powder,
exceptionally hard materials harder,
wear-resistant and more durable
drilling equipment
 Small drill-hole evaluation instruments to
reduce drilling costs and to provide
greater environmental sensitivity
because of less drill waste.

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 New Sensors for Improving Exploration
 Reliable/economical sensors from optical
fibers for measuring temperature, pressure,
oil-flow rate and acoustic waves in oil wells
 “Nanodust” to provide data on reservoir
characterization, fluid-flow monitoring and
fluid-type recognition.
 Explore more oil reserves sites
 Remove harmful toxic substances such as NOx,
SOx and VOC from oil vapor and mercury, Cd,Pb
from soil and water
 Remove Controlled agglomeration of particles
 Polyimide (PI)/TiO2 membranes for gas separation
 Nano filters & Nano membranes
Nano filters
Sensors
Applications: Oil & Gas Industry

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Applications: Oil & Gas Industry
 Ceramic and intermetallic nanocoatings :
Nanomaterials coatings: Anti-wear for
drilling parts, corrosion-resistance, wear-
resistance, shock-resistance, enhanced
thermal conductivity
 Designer properties to enhance hydro-
phobic or hydrophilic behavior, to enhance
materials for waterflood applications
roller-cone with bits for oil drilling
 Catalysts :Nano-catalysts may also offer a
solution for on-site upgrading of bitumen and
heavy crude oil
 Heavy oil will be converted into the light oil gas

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What is Nanofluid/Smart fluid?
 New class of fluids
 Dilute liquid suspension of nanostructured materials (<100nm) in base
fluid.
 Not simply liquid –solid mixture
 High Specific properties such as durable & stable suspension, no
agglomeration & chemical change in fluid
 Enhancing magnetic, electrical and thermal conductivity
 Nanoemulsion as “Smart fluid”
 Ferro fluids, suspension of nano-sized magnetic particles, are
magnetically controllable smart fluids and used in improving oil recovery
by enhancing surfactant flooding

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Nanofluid/Smart fluid

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Complex phenomenon of nanofluids
 Promise large-scale performance gains from tight reservoirs
 Efficiently Heavy crude oil exploration
 Reduce surface tension in the range of 70-90% on oil boundary in
comparison with active agent aqueous solution
Nanofluids possess enhanced
thermophysical properties
 Thermal conductivity,
 Thermal diffusivity,
 Viscosity
 Convective Heat transfer
coefficients
Nanofluids: Specific Properties
Thermophysical Properties

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Rheological curve of anionic surfactant aqueous solution without
addition and with addition of nanoparticles
 Viscosity of surfactant aqueous solution became more than double by
adding the nanoparticles
Flow Characteristic & Interfacial Tension
 Presence of nanoparticles changes rheological properties and increases the
effect of surfactant solutions on oil recovery processes
 Presence of nanoparticles reduces the interfacial tension
Source: Suleimanov et al, 2011, JPSE 78, 431–437

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Chatzis & Morrow SPEJ (1994,561)
Oil Recovery Vs Capillary Number
 Wettability alteration, advanced drag reduction and binders for sand consolidation

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Comparison of finite oil recovery, %OOIP (Original Oil in Place) from
Homogeneous and Heterogeneous pore medium
 In homogeneous medium, finite oil recovery increases 17% compared to
water and 12% compared to surfactant solution
Nanofluids: Improved Oil Recovery
 Similarly, in heterogeneous medium, the finite oil recovery increases
17% and 22% compared to surfactant and water.
Source: Suleimanov et al, 2011, JPSE 78, 431–437

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Concluding Remarks
 Nanoscience & Interfacial Engineering can lead to new development in
Oil & Gas Industry
 New surfactants, nanomaterials are required to recover the immobile oil
from tight reservoir and to improve oil and gas production in an
economical way.
 Nanofluid can provided solutions for EOR from exhausted oil rigs
 Nanocatalyst can help to increase the production of Upstream &
downstream units with environment friendly approaches.
 Extensive research required to improve the materials for oil & gas
Industries.

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Thank You