Study of a high salt tolerant amphiphilic polymer and its salt thickening mechanism
Yang H. Pan S. Jiang H. Zhang J. Li H. Xing L. Zhang Y. Sarsenbekuly B. Kang W. Zhang X. Li J. Wang P. A.Ketova Y. Lekomtseve A.
15 April 2024Elsevier B.V.
Journal of Molecular Liquids
2024#400
Polymer flooding is the most reliable method for the petroleum industry to further enhance oil recovery from the developed oil field and to keep the total oil production. For the reservoirs with high salinity, traditional polymer fluids, for example partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), are failed to improve oil recovery rate due to the molecular agglomeration caused by compression-diffusion electric double layer. By optimizing the copolymerization of cyclic structure monomer n-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) and long-chain hydrophobic monomer cetyl dimethyl allyl ammonium chloride (C16DMAAC), a high salt tolerant amphiphilic polymer P(AM/NVP/C16DMAAC), abbreviated as PANC, is synthesized. The optimal polymerization conditions were determined depending on the apparent viscosity measured by the rheometer. The microstructure of the polymer was evaluated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The viscosity of 2000 mg/L PANC increased to 42.7 mPa·s at the salinity of 11.6 × 104 mg/L and temperature of 40 °C, while the viscosity of HPAM was only 7.3 mPa·s under the same condition. The viscosity of PANC was 479 % higher than that of HPAM, indicating the remarkable salt tolerant property of PANC. The viscosity of PANC increased from 12 mPa·s to 42.7 mPa·s when the salinity increased from 1 × 104 mg/L to 11.6 × 104 mg/L. By comparing the salt resistance of polymer PANC and polymer P(AM/AA/C16), abbreviated as AP-C16, indicating that NVP enhanced the rigidity of the PANC molecular chain, and hindered the shrinkage and curling of the molecular chain after salt addition. The inclusion effect of β-cyclodextrin on the hydrophobic groups of PANC indicated that PANC increased viscosity through the hydrophobic association of C16DMAAC. Furthermore, PANC showed a salt thickening ability due to the synergy effect of C16DMAAC and NVP. As such, the salt tolerant amphiphilic polymer PANC offers a novel polymer flooding material for oil displacement, especially under a high-salinity condition.
Reservoirs with high salinity , Salt thickening , Salt tolerant amphiphilic polymer , Viscosity
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China
School of Energy and Petroleum Industry, Kazakh-British Technical University, Almaty, 050000, Kazakhstan
Petroleum Engineering Technology Research Institute of Shengli Oilfield Branch of Sinopec Dongying Shandong, 257000, China
Downhole Service Company, CNPC Chuanqing Drilling Engineering Company Limited, Chengdu, 610051, China
Mining and Petroleum Faculty, Perm National Research Polytechnic University, Perm, 614990, Russian Federation
School of Petroleum Engineering
School of Energy and Petroleum Industry
Petroleum Engineering Technology Research Institute of Shengli Oilfield Branch of Sinopec Dongying Shandong
Downhole Service Company
Mining and Petroleum Faculty
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026