Influence of external conditions on the stability of inorganic gel foam and exploration of the mechanism of action

•The stability of gel foam under harsh conditions was clarified.•The interaction between Gel and AOS components decreased Zeta potential.•Self-healing gel foam with high storage modulus rebuilds system stability.•Emulsion oil droplets form a stable lamella in the Plateau boundary. Foams are widely u...

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Veröffentlicht in:Journal of molecular liquids 2023-01, Vol.369, p.120873, Article 120873
Hauptverfasser: Lai, Nanjun, Zhao, Jun, Wang, Jun, Gao, Lan, He, Qin
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:•The stability of gel foam under harsh conditions was clarified.•The interaction between Gel and AOS components decreased Zeta potential.•Self-healing gel foam with high storage modulus rebuilds system stability.•Emulsion oil droplets form a stable lamella in the Plateau boundary. Foams are widely used in tertiary oil recovery because of their dual function (profile control and oil displacement), and foam stability is still the focus of research when implementing foam plugging technologies. In addition to the chemical ingredients of the foam system, external conditions are vital factors affecting foam performance. The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of the different reservoir conditions on the stability of the gel foam system. The stability of a gel foam was investigated by changing temperature, pressure, salinity and oil saturation, and its foam properties, coarsening properties, defoaming behavior and rheological properties were investigated. The Ostwald ripening rate and the gas molecular diffusion coefficient ratio of the gel foam decay process were obtained by statistical methods, and the foam effect was analyzed by the rheological properties of the gel foam. Finally, the influence of the oil–water interface properties on the stability of the oil-bearing gel foam was explored. Experimentally, our results show that heating aggravates the decay behavior of gel foam, and pressurization increases the strength and delays the liquid drainage speed of the foam lamella. When the salinity is less than 5 × 104 mg/L, the gel foam has higher stability and shows obvious salinity synergy. When the oil saturation is less than 10 %, the gel foam can change the defoaming behavior of crude oil behavior to a stable foam behavior. This study shed light on the stability law of gel foams under different external conditions and clarified the decay mechanism of gel foam.
ISSN:0167-7322
1873-3166
DOI:10.1016/j.molliq.2022.120873