Design and economical evaluation of biopolymer injection-design project

Throughout the life of a petroleum reservoir, the oil recovery passes through several stages, which are primary, secondary and tertiary recovery. At initial reservoir conditions, the production of the oil mainly depends on the natural existing pressure of the reservoir. However, after some time of production and the pressure becomes insufficient, other methods must be used to provide reinforcement and continue the production process. Therefore, many methods developed throughout the last decades to increase oil recovery. This research project investigates the application of biopolymer in the oil recovery process and how these biopolymers can increase the recovery of oil. The biopolymers used in the project are xanthan gum and starch where both of them are compared together by different experimental procedures. There are some physical properties that must be present in a polymer in order to guarantee good performance, which is high viscosities and having the tolerance to harsh reservoir conditions. Accordingly, the 2 biopolymers selected are compared together through firstly the rheological procedures using the 800 model 8-speed viscometer then carrying out flooding procedures by using the newly designed core flood system that was made by the students of this research project. After the experiments carried out, xanthan has reigned superior over starch when it comes to the viscosity and eventually having a better sweeping efficiency due to its higher viscosity, which makes it easier to sweep more portions of oil present in the core samples used during the flooding experiments. Furthermore, an economic study will be made to see how economically efficient those biopolymers are which is really important since any strategy made must consider the economic considerations.