ENHANCING VISCOUS OIL RECOVERY IN THE MICROBUBBLE FILTRATION MODE USING SUPERCRITICAL FLUID SYSTEMS

An experimental facility has been developed to study oil recovery using supercritical fluid systems of bulk and composite homogeneous porous materials in the mode of miscible and microbubble filtration of a mixture of oil and supercritical carbon dioxide. A device for visualizing the release of supercritical CO 2 microbubbles from the experimental cell with a porous medium has been designed. The oil recovery by supercritical CO 2 and rims of supercritical CO 2 and water from a homogeneous bulk porous medium has been experimentally studied. It has been shown that the miscible mode of viscous oil recovery by supercritical CO 2 is most efficient and the efficiency of viscous oil recovery in the microbubble mode can be increased using rims of supercritical CO 2 and water. The mechanism of oil recovery enhancement in the region of microbubble recovery of viscous oil by supercritical CO 2 is described.