Development of Nanofluids: a Recent Investigation of Novel Mechanism to Displace Oil

Summary This paper presents recent investigation of novel mechanism of nanofluids to displace oil in the porous media. The new inhouse nanofluids was developed using acrylamide monomers that were grafted on the surface of silica-based nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were characterized under electron microscope. The particle size was measured with size around 20 nm. Compatibility and thermal stability tests were conducted using actual reservoir fluids at reservoir temperature. The dynamic interfacial tension (IFT) and optical contact angle (OCA) was performed to observe fluid-fluid and rock-fluid interaction. The IFT reduced significantly from 2.6 to 0.01 mN/m and the synergistic effect was observed during IFT measurement and called as fragmentation. Our recent finding leads to provide new reference for displacement mechanism using next generation of nanofluids and offers further potential of nanoparticles with multiple mechanisms and rapid synergistic effects prior its implementation at field.