Synthesis, Characterization, and Assessment of a CeO2@Nanoclay Nanocomposite for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Mohammad Javad Nazarahari; Abbas Khaksar Manshad; Siyamak Moradi; Ali Shafiei; Jagar Abdulazez Ali; S Mohammad Sajadi; Alireza Keshavarz

doi:10.3390/nano10112280

Synthesis, Characterization, and Assessment of a CeO₂@Nanoclay Nanocomposite for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2020 Nov 17;10(11):2280. doi: 10.3390/nano10112280.

Authors

Mohammad Javad Nazarahari¹, Abbas Khaksar Manshad¹, Siyamak Moradi¹, Ali Shafiei², Jagar Abdulazez Ali³, S Mohammad Sajadi⁴, Alireza Keshavarz⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Petroleum Engineering, Abadan Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology (PUT), Abadan 63187-14317, Iran.
² Petroleum Engineering Program, School of Mining & Geosciences, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan.
³ Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Soran University, Kurdistan Regional Government, Soran P.O. Box 624, Iraq.
⁴ Department of Nutrition, College of Health Technology, Cihan University-Erbil, Kurdistan Regional Government, Erbil P.O. Box 623, Iraq.
⁵ School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup 6027, Australia.

Abstract

In this paper, synthesis and characterization of a novel CeO₂/nanoclay nanocomposite (NC) and its effects on IFT reduction and wettability alteration is reported in the literature for the first time. The NC was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and EDS MAP. The surface morphology, crystalline phases, and functional groups of the novel NC were investigated. Nanofluids with different concentrations of 100, 250, 500, 1000, 1500, and 2000 ppm were prepared and used as dispersants in porous media. The stability, pH, conductivity, IFT, and wettability alternation characteristics of the prepared nanofluids were examined to find out the optimum concentration for the selected carbonate and sandstone reservoir rocks. Conductivity and zeta potential measurements showed that a nanofluid with concentration of 500 ppm can reduce the IFT from 35 mN/m to 17 mN/m (48.5% reduction) and alter the contact angle of the tested carbonate and sandstone reservoir rock samples from 139° to 53° (38% improvement in wettability alteration) and 123° to 90° (27% improvement in wettability alteration), respectively. A cubic fluorite structure was identified for CeO₂ using the standard XRD data. FESEM revealed that the surface morphology of the NC has a layer sheet morphology of CeO₂/SiO₂ nanocomposite and the particle sizes are approximately 20 to 26 nm. TGA analysis results shows that the novel NC has a high stability at 90 °C which is a typical upper bound temperature in petroleum reservoirs. Zeta potential peaks at concentration of 500 ppm which is a sign of stabilty of the nanofluid. The results of this study can be used in design of optimum yet effective EOR schemes for both carbobate and sandstone petroleum reservoirs.

Keywords: carbonate reservoirs; characterization; clay nanocomposite; enhanced oil recovery; interfacial tension; nanocomposite; nanofluid; sandstone reservoirs; synthesis; wettability alteration.