title: Ultrasound-assisted CO2flooding to improve oil recovery.
abstract: CO2flooding process as a common enhanced oil recovery method may suffer from interface instability due to fingering and gravity override, therefore, in this study a method to improve the performance of CO2flooding through an integrated ultraosund-CO2flooding process is presented. Ultrasonic waves can deliver energy from a generator to oil and affect its properties such as internal energy and viscosity. Thus, a series of CO2flooding experiments in the presence of ultrasonic waves were performed for controlled and uncontrolled temperature conditions. Results indicate that oil recovery was improved by using ultrasound-assisted CO2flooding compared to conventional CO2flooding. However, the changes were more pronounced for uncontrolled temperature conditions of ultrasound-assisted CO2flooding. It was found that ultrasonic waves create a more stable interface between displacing and displaced fluids that could be due to the reductions in viscosity, capillary pressure and interfacial tension. In addition, higher CO2injection rates, increases the recovery factor in all the experiments which highlights the importance of injection rate as another factor on reduction of the fingering effects and improvement of the sweep efficiency.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK. Electronic address: hossein.hamidi@abdn.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hamidi
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK.
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharifi Haddad
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University Technology MARA, 40450 UiTM, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Erfan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mohammadian
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK.
authors.forename: Roozbeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rafati
authors.affiliation: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Azdarpour
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK.
authors.forename: Panteha
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ghahri
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ombewa
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Neuert
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK.
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zink
keywords: CO(2) flooding; Controlled and uncontrolled temperature; High frequency waves; Ultrasound; Unconventional EOR