Effects and Mechanisms of Dilute-Foam Dispersion System on Enhanced Oil Recovery from Pore-Scale to Core-Scale

The dilute-foam dispersion system improves oil recovery by reducing interfacial tension between oil and water, altering wettability, and diverting displaced fluids by plugging larger pores. An optimized foaming system is obtained by formability evaluation experiments, in which the half-life for drainage and foaming volume by different types and concentrations of surfactants are analyzed, followed by the addition of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) with varied concentrations to enhance the foam stability. Using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6 software, the Jamin effect and plugging mechanism of the water–gas dispersion system in narrow pore throats were simulated. This dispersion system is applied to assist CO2 huff-n-puff in a low-permeability core, combined with the online NMR method, to investigate its effects on enhanced oil recovery from the pore scale. Core-flooding experiments with double-pipe parallel cores are then performed to check the effect and mechanism of this dilute-foam dispersion system (DFDS) on enhanced oil recovery from the core scale. Results show that foam generated by combining 0.6% alpha-olefin sulfonate (AOS) foaming agent with 0.3% HPAM foam stabilizer exhibits the strongest foamability and the best foam stability. The recovery factor of the DFDS-assisted CO2 huff-n-puff method is improved by 6.13% over CO2 huff-n-puff, with smaller pores increased by 30.48%. After applying DFDS, the minimum pore radius for oil utilization is changed from 0.04 µm to 0.029 µm. The calculation method for the effective working distance of CO2 huff-n-puff for core samples is proposed in this study, and it is increased from 1.7 cm to 2.05 cm for the 5 cm long core by applying DFDS. Double-pipe parallel core-flooding experiments show that this dispersion system can increase the total recovery factor by 17.4%. The DFDS effectively blocks high-permeability layers, adjusts the liquid intake profile, and improves recovery efficiency in heterogeneous reservoirs.