1400 N. Bishop, Rolla, MO 65409-0330

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Adel Alotibi, a doctoral candidate in petroleum engineering, will defend their dissertation titled “Investigating the Transport and Plugging Behavior of CO2-Resistant Preformed Particle Gels In High Conductive Channels for Conformance Control.” Their advisor, Dr. Baojun Bai, is a professor in the earth sciences and engineering department. Their co-advisor, Dr. Thomas Schuman is a professor in the chemistry department. The dissertation abstract is provided below.

Improving oil recovery is essential with rising global oil demand and declining production in mature fields. CO2 flooding has been widely applied as a major Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) method due to its effectiveness in boosting oil recovery while enabling safe carbon storage in the subsurface.). However, in fractured and highly heterogeneous reservoirs, CO2 often flows through paths of least resistance, leading to early breakthrough or quick excessive CO2 production and leaving substantial oil in unswept zones or areas Traditional in-situ polymer gels have been applied to control CO2 flooding conformance, their performance has been varied, potentially due to gel instability under CO₂ conditions. This study systematically evaluated the behavior of a novel CO2-resistant branched re-crosslinkable preformed particle gels (CO2-BRPPG) to enhance CO2 sweep efficiency. Rheological properties of micro- and millimeter-sized particles of CO2-BRPPG were tested under varying conditions of temperature, salinity, and pressure. Transport mechanisms of micro-sized CO2-BRPPG in super-permeable channels were analyzed, showing how each factor influenced gel propagation and plugging efficiency. Additionally, millimeter-sized CO2-BRPPG was assessed in an open fracture model during water and CO2 flooding, identifying key parameters affecting gel movement dehydration and plugging performance to CO2 and water. The study demonstrated that RPPG remains stable under CO2 conditions, providing reliable technology for effective conformance control during CO2 flooding. These findings provide crucial evidence supporting the application of CO2-BRPPG for conformance control, offering insights to optimize oil recovery in reservoirs with high heterogeneity.

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