Investigation of reactive transport phenomena for modification of two phase flow using NMR

Water control in oil and gas wells is crucially needed in many oil and gas producing wells. Reactive transport phenomena occur in a wide variety of engineering and scientific fields. In particular, it has been suggested in rRecent studies have indicated that chemicals, that are soluble in oil without a chemical reaction and but react and forming gels upon contact with water,ingin presence may block of water-bearing zones with little risk of damaging the oil-bearing zones . The chemical is initially mixed with oil. can modify two-phase flow properties to reduce water production, during oil and gas recovery. The gelation in theprocess water phaseprocess involves the partitioning of the chemical , which is initially mixed with oil, out of the oil phase into the water phase. Upon contact with waterA a heterogeneous reaction occurstakes place (hydrolysis and condensation) between gelant and water, leadingwhich eventually leads ultimately to gelationthe formation of a gel in the water phase. The aim of this study is to gain more greater insight into the coupled mass transfer and gelation process both in bulk and in porous media. For this purpose wWe usedevelop Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imaging techniques to conduct both a qualitative and quantitative analyseis. The discrimination between the chemical components is mainly based on relaxation times T[1] and T[2]. Bulk measurements aare performed to study the mass transfer-reaction mechanisms in an idealized setting. This way, Mmass transfer rates and gelation times can be obtainedare estimated as functions of parameters, such as temperature, pH, concentration etcphysical parameters (temperature, concentrations etc.). In addition, theThe chemical gelant is then applied in a two-phase saturated glass bead system which constitutes ian idealized porous mediaum (glass bead packs) containing two phases. High-resolution images aare usedre obtained to reveal the reaction-mass transfer phenomena on the (macro-) pore scale. The results prove to be very promising for further investigations with the NMR methods.