Hydrolyzed polyacrylamide – Fly ash reinforced polymer for chemical enhanced oil recovery: Part 1 – Injectivity experiments

Polymer Injection is a mobility control enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method used to increase recovery beyond that of primary and secondary production mechanisms. One of the most used polymers in the hydrocarbon industry due to its cost, availability, and ease in handling is hydrolyzed polyacrylamide polymer (HPAM). Even though this polymer is widely used, it has been reported to degrade under different conditions. Another major parameter affecting polymer flooding is the injectivity, or the ease by which the polymer can be injected. This research reinforces HPAM with fly ash, which is an extremely low cost material, and studies the injectivity of this new reinforced polymer at different conditions. Different reinforced polymer solutions were prepared, and the stable solutions were determined and used for the injectivity experiments. The impact of varying polymer concentration, fly ash concentration, and polymer injection flowrate on polymer injectivity was investigated. Results showed that the new reinforced polymer could be easily injected and thus the presence of fly ash did not impact the ability to inject the polymer greatly. This novel HPAM – fly ash polymer can prove to be a better alternative to using conventional HPAM in polymer injection operations to increase oil recovery.