Investigation of Ultrasonic Wave Effect on Adsorption of

Nanocomposite (NC) by Carbonate Rock

A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Petroleum Engineering

Soran University

Faculty of Engineering

Department of Petroleum Engineering

By:
Sayaf Salman Hamad
Mohammad Hasan Ababakr
Snawbar Yaseen Sleman

Supervised by:
Abbas Khasar Manshad
Jagar Abdulaziz Ali
Barham Sabir Mahmood

(2019-2020)
 DECLARATION

We, Sayaf Salman Hamad, Mohammad Hassan Ababakr and Snawbar Yaseen Sleman, confirm
that this work submitted for assessment is our own and is expressed in our own words. Any uses
made within it of the works of other authors in any form (e.g. ideas, equations, figures, text,
tables, programs) are properly acknowledged at the point of their use. A list of the references
employed is included.

Name: Sayaf Salman Hamad

Signed………………………….
Name: Mohammad Hassan Ababakr
Signed………………………….
Name: Snawbar Yaseen Sleman
Signed………………………….

Date……………………………

i
 APPROVAL FOR SUBMISSION

I certify that this project report entitled “INVESTIGATION OF ULTRASONIC WAVE

EFFECT ON ADSORPTION OF NANOCOMPOSITE (NC) BY CARBONATE ROCK”
was prepared SAYAF SALMAN HAMAD, MOHAMMAD HASSAN ABABAKIR AND
SNAWBAR YASEEN SLEMAN has met the required standard for submission in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Petroleum Engineering at Soran
University.

Approved by,

Signature: ……………………

Supervisor: …………………………….

Date: ……………………..

ii
 AKNOWEDGEMENTS

We would firstly like to thank Allah and our parents for their continuous support. We would also
like to thank our supervisor, Dr. Abbas Khaksar Manshad for his assistance. Our deepest
appreciation goes to all those who provided us the possibility and chance to accomplish this
report project.

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Abstract

A promising function for improving oil recovery demonstrated in nanoparticles (NPs) as

potential for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). For this research, the effect of concentration and sizes
of TiO2 nanoparticle dispersed in different salinities of seawater on interfacial tension (IFT) and
contact angle (CA) was investigated. Additionally, a green method was used for the preparing of
Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite (NC) from Euodia Hortensis leaf for enhanced oil recovery
(EOR) application including imbibition test under effect of ultrasonic waves. The technique of
scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared
Spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to identify the prepared Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite. In order
to prepare the nanofluid, Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite at concentration of (250-1000 ppm) was
dispersed in distilled water and characterized by PH, conductivity and density. The gained results
in this experiment shows that as the size of TiO 2 nanoparticle decrease and concentration
increase, the IFT and contact angle will decrease. Imbibition experiment shows that
Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite with the aid of ultrasonic waves has a significant effect on
increasing oil recovery; the recovery factor was 57 %.

iv
Table of Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................................................iv

1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................1

1.1. Objective................................................................................................................................3

1.2. Outlines..................................................................................................................................3

2. Background and Literature Review..............................................................................................3

2.1. Petroleum Reservoir..............................................................................................................3

2.2. Reservoir Characteristics.......................................................................................................4

2.2.1. Porosity...........................................................................................................................4

2.2.2. Permeability....................................................................................................................5

2.2.3. Fluid Saturation...............................................................................................................6

2.2.4. Wettability.......................................................................................................................8

2.2.5. Surface Tension (ST) and Interfacial Tension (IFT).....................................................10

2.2.6. Capillary Pressure.........................................................................................................12

2.2.7. Relative Permeability....................................................................................................15

2.2.8. Oil Recovery Mechanisms............................................................................................16

2.2.9. Enhanced Oil Recovery.................................................................................................17

2.3. Literature Review................................................................................................................20

2.3.1. Application of Ultrasonic Wave in Enhanced Oil Recover..........................................20

2.3.2. Application of Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery.............................................23

3. Materials and Methodology........................................................................................................27

3.1. Materials..............................................................................................................................27

3.2. Preparation and Characteristics of Fe3O4@quartz Nanocomposite.....................................30

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 3.3. Preparation and Characteristics of Nanofluid......................................................................31

3.3. IFT Measurement.................................................................................................................31

3.4. Contact Angle Measurement...............................................................................................32

3.5. Core Preparation..................................................................................................................33

3.6. Imbibition Test.....................................................................................................................34

3.7. Nanoparticles Adsorption on Carbonate Rock....................................................................34

4. Results and Discussion...............................................................................................................35

4.1. Characterization of Fe3O4@quartz Nanocomposite.............................................................35

4.2. Characterization of Nanofluids............................................................................................37

4.3. IFT Reduction......................................................................................................................38

4.4. Contact Angle......................................................................................................................40

4.5. Imbibition Test.....................................................................................................................41

4.6. Nanoparticles Adsorption on Carbonate Rock....................................................................43

Conclusion......................................................................................................................................44

References......................................................................................................................................45

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Scheme of the typical gas, oil, and water distribution through the petroleum reservoir.. 4
Figure 2: Degrees of wetting of rock surface by liquids. (a) oil-wet, (b) intermediate wet and (c)
water-wet........................................................................................................................................10
Figure 3: The idea of IFT between two immiscible liquids Dandekar (2006, p.111)....................11
Figure 4: Capillary pressure versus water saturation, drainage and imbibition curve (Baker et al.,
2015)...............................................................................................................................................13
Figure 5: Capillary number correlation (Terry and Rogers, 2015)................................................14
Figure 6: Typical relative permeability curves of water-wet system (Terry and Rogers, 2015)....16
Figure 7: the schematic diagram of oil recovery by ultrasonic wave. (1) Reservoir; (2) ultrasonic
equipment; (3) packer; (4) tubing; (5) casing valve; (6) lubricator; (7) flow outline; (8) cable feed;
(9) cable; (10) wireline truck;(11) pump (Wang et al., 2020)........................................................21
Figure 8: XRD analysis of the Asmari carbonate rock...................................................................27
Figure 9: TEM images of TiO2 nanoparticles with different sizes: (a) 10 nm (b) 20 nm and (c) 30
nm...................................................................................................................................................29
Figure 10: stability of TiO2 nanoparticles at 10 nm particle sizes and different concentrations....29
Figure 11: schematic diagram of Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite preparation process...................30
Figure 12: Schematic diagram of IFT measurement. (a) High pressure HP and high temperature
HT pendant drop IFT400 apparatus, and (b) crude oil droplet (Ali et al., 2020)...........................32
Figure 13: Schematic illustration of the sessile drop method for contact angle measurements (Ali
et al., 2019, p. 10)...........................................................................................................................33
Figure 14: Schematic diagram of ultrasonic imbibition test..........................................................34
Figure 15: XRD pattern of prepared Fe3O4@quartz NC................................................................36
Figure 16: FTIR spectra of Fe3O4@quartz NC...............................................................................36
Figure 17: SEM micrographs of Fe3O4@quartz NC at (a) μm and 50 kx and (b) 200 nm and 200
kx magnification.............................................................................................................................37
Figure 18: Characteristics of prepared nanofluids with 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm
nanocomposite concentrations. (a) PH and (b) conductivity..........................................................38
Figure 19: recovery data versus time for the nanofluid..................................................................42

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Figure 20: TiO2 nanoparticles adsorption on carbonate rock surface with time............................43
List of Tables

Table 1: Recent works of EOR assisted ultrasonic wave...............................................................22

Table 2: Recent works of nanofluid in EOR..................................................................................26
Table 3: Composition of Gachsaran crude oil................................................................................28
Table 4: Analysis of the seawater...................................................................................................28
Table 5: Nanofluid formulation prepared in this research..............................................................31
Table 6: IFT of seawater diluted samples in absence of TiO2 NPs at 75 °C and atmospheric
pressure...........................................................................................................................................39
Table 7: IFT results of different sizes and concentrations of TiO2 nanofluids at different salinities
of seawater at 75 °C and atmospheric pressure..............................................................................39
Table 8: Contact angle of seawater diluted samples in absence of TiO2 NPs at 75 °C and
atmospheric pressure......................................................................................................................40
Table 9: Contact angle results of different sizes and concentrations of TiO2 nanofluids at different
salinities of seawater at 75 °C and atmospheric pressure...............................................................41
Table 10: Nanofluid and plug properties used for imbibition test..................................................42

viii
List of Abbreviations

cEOR Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery

OOIP Original Oil in Place

NP Nanoparticle

NC Nanocomposite

NF Nanofluid

IFT Interfacial Tension

ST Surface Tension

SSA Specific Surface Area

CA Contact Angle

XRD X-ray Diffraction

SEM Scanning Electron Microscopy

TEM Transmission Electron Microscopy

FTIR Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

ix
1. Introduction

Increasing energy consumption has been expected by 50% in the next two decades (Kong
and Ohadi, 2010). Crude oil and natural gas are the most demanding nonrenewable energy (Ali et
al., 2019). The history of the production of an oil reservoir goes through numerous stages.
Primary recovery is the first stage of oil recovery which allows the fluids to flow into production
wells and then to the surface under the reservoir pressure, the second stage is secondary recovery
involves reinjection of brine and gas or flooding of water (Alhomadhi et al., 2014). In many
reservoirs around two-third of original oil in place (OOIP) cannot be extracted using conventional
methods of production (Joonaki and Ghanaatian, 2014). Therefore, the reservoir goes to the third
stage of its life called tertiary recovery, also known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR), to extract
the remaining oil in the reservoir. Mohammadalinejad et al., (2019) stated that based on the
reservoir fluids and the formation properties, injection of gas, thermal and chemicals are the most
commonly used (EOR) scenarios. Polymer flooding as a chemical enhanced oil recovery (cEOR)
method has been suggested in the half of the 20 th century (Saha et al., 2018). Ogolo et al., (2012)
emphasize that polymers are proven chemicals used to improve the viscosity of the displacing
fluid, but polymers limitations include the degradation of some liquid properties at high
temperatures. In addition, another (cEOR) technic is surfactant flooding. Ehtesabi et al., (2013)
claim that primarily they are used as interfacial tension (IFT) reduction chemicals, but such
processes are problematic with hard salinity and high temperature which increase efficiency loss
and potential plugging. The high cost of the injection fluids, possible formation corrosion, and the
loss of injections and adsorption during the flow-through reservoir, limit (cEOR) processes, such
as polymer flooding, alkaline flooding, and surfactant flooding or their combination (Kong and
Ohadi, 2010). Hence, new technology is required to minimize the damages and show promising
results in a cost-effective manner, with respect to environmental impacts. (Negin, Ali, and Xie,
2016) point out that due to the cost-effective and environmentally friendly way nanotechnology
has attracted innumerable attention in improving oil recovery. The surface area of nanoparticles
per unit volume is greater than the bulk material (Sharma et al., 2016). Thus, they make greater
contact with oil (Saha et al., 2018). (Li and Torsæter, 2015) discuss that based on a number of
articles it has been shown that nanofluid has great potential for EOR. Mohammadalinejad et al.,

1
(2019) investigated that aqueous nanofluid can reduce (IFT) and change wettability to more
water-wet. Furthermore, Negin et al., (2016) concluded that polymer-coated nanoparticle can
activate processes by oil viscosity reduction, IFT reduction, increasing sweep efficiency, and
wettability alteration. During nanofluid flooding in porous media, adsorption of nanoparticles
results in the physical phenomenon of filtration, especially in rocks of low permeability, resulting
in pores blocking (Gbadamosi, 2018). Adsorption of surface-active chemicals to reservoir rock
pores during chemical EOR is a key factor to maximize injection chemicals composition, this
phenomenon economically is not desirable Mohammadalinejad et al., (2019). In order to improve
the rheological and shear properties and to minimize the Polymer adsorption, Gbadamosi et al.,
(2019) have applied nanoparticles to the polymer solution. Cheraghian et al., (2014) investigated
on effect of SiO2 and Clay nanoparticles on polymer adsorption, they concluded that the
adsorption between polymer molecules and the solid surface is dominated by nano-clay and
nano-silica; moreover, they concluded that nanopolymer solution adsorption in carbonated stones
is always greater than in sandstones, and polymer solutions that contain silica nanoparticles are
less adsorbed.

Efforts to find new technics for oil recovery are still continual, an ultrasound wave is an
economically and environmentally beneficial mechanism for enhancing oil recovery (EOR)
which researchers and reservoir engineers are very interested in (Agi, 2019). Arabzadeh and
Amani (2017) claim that Oil recovery studies by vibration started first in the 1950s when
researchers saw an increase in production after cultural noises and earthquakes. Ultrasonic waves
can reduce oil viscosity (Abramova, 2014), IFT reduction between oil and water (Alhomadhi et
al., 2014), emulsification (Hamidi, 2015), and increase displacement efficiency (Duhon and
Campbell, 1999). Previously, the effect of the ultrasonic wave on surfactant flooding has been
investigated by (Hamidi et al., 2015) and (Agi et al., 2018), they reported that surfactants
adsorption decreased.

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effect of nanoparticles (NPs) size
and concentration on nanofluid adsorption, interfacial tension (IFT) and contact angle (CA).
Additionally, the effect of magnetic nanocomposite (NC) with the aid of ultrasonic waves was
investigated on oil recovery by imbibition method.

2
1.1. Objective

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effect of nanoparticles (NPs) size
and concentration on nanofluid adsorption, interfacial tension (IFT) and contact angle (CA).
Additionally, the effects of magnetic nanocomposite (NC) with the aid of ultrasonic waves were
investigated on oil recovery by imbibition method.

1.2. Outlines

This bachelor’s thesis consists of five sections, which are briefly described below:
1st Section is (Introduction). It gives a brief introduction and primary objectives of the project.
2nd Section is (Background and Literature Review). This section includes background information
about petroleum reservoir characteristics and oil recovery methods. It also describes the previous
works related to this study.
3rd Section is (Materials and Methodology). In this section, the materials and methodology of the
work are discussed.
4th Section is (Results and Discussion). The final results and discussing them are mentioned in
this section.
5th Section is (Conclusion). Concludes the entire project and summarizes the findings.

2. Background and Literature Review

2.1. Petroleum Reservoir

In general, the term "reservoir" means a pool or an accumulation of oil in porous rock
formations that have been buried several feet subsurface (Dandekar, 2006). The oil reservoirs are
made up of porosity, permeability and trap underneath rocks, porosity and permeability affect the
ability of the reservoir to collect and produce hydrocarbons (Satter et al., 2008). Gas and oil are
kept at high temperatures and pressures in the rock pores (Blunt, 2017). There are two different
theories regarding the formation of petroleum, organic and inorganic, between both theories of
organisms is perhaps more popular and accepted in general (Dandekar, 2006). Many reservoirs

3
are hydraulically connected to rocks with water or aquifers that provide natural sources of energy
for the recovery of hydrocarbons. Expansion of fluid, displacement of fluid, gravitational
drainage and/or capillary expulsion is causes of recovering oil and gas (Lyons and Plisga, 2005).
Some oil reservoirs comprise two fluid phases, including gas and oil or water, but some have all
three phases: gas, oil, and water, those phase distributed differently through the reservoir due to
their gravity differences (Dandekar, 2006). The schematic of an ideal reservoir is shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1: Scheme of the typical gas, oil, and water distribution through the petroleum reservoir.

2.2. Reservoir Characteristics

2.2.1. Porosity

Geological petroleum formation is distinguished by a microscopic pores network that can

coexist with crude oil, gas, and water (Satter et al., 2008). The porosity of a rock is a
measurement of the storage capacity (for porous volume), if quantitatively define it could be said,
porosity is a ratio between the volume of the pores and the total volume (bulk volume) and
expresses by the following equation (Ahmed, 2006):

4
 V pore
∅= - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (1)
V bulk

The porosity unit is dimensionless. Ganat (2020) claims that, porosity usually ranges
between less than 1 and 40% for most rocks. Terry and Rogers (2015) state that, porosity ranges
from 10 to 40% for reservoirs of sandstone rock type and 5 to 15% for reservoirs of limestone
rock type. Furthermore, Guo et al., (2008) state that, the porosity of the carbonate base material is
virtually zero, and the total porosity of carbonate rocks can be considerable because of the natural
rock fractures. According to engineering classification, there are two types of porosity, total
porosity, and effective porosity, according to geological classification porosity divided into
primary and secondary porosity (Tiab and Donaldson, 2012). The total porosity is the proportion
of the totally empty space in the reservoir rock to the full or broad rock weight (Dandekar, 2006).
The effective porosity of bulk volume is the percentage of interconnected porosity (Ahmed,
2006). Space between the primary grains of the sediment is often called primary porosity, and the
secondary porosity is called porosity, produced by dissolution or fracturing of grains (Bjørlykke,
2015). Porosity is measured in two ways, by wireline logs or laboratory core measurements
(Wheaton, 2016).

2.2.2. Permeability

Besides porosity, permeability is also a rock property that depends on the pores of the
rocks. The capacity of a rock to transfer fluids through the pore network is determined by
permeability, while the ability of rock holding fluids is defined by porosity (Hu et al., 2017).
Rock permeability depends on its effective porosity, thus the grain size, kernel shapes, grain size
distributing, grain packaging and the degre of consolaidation and cementation are affected Tiab
and Donaldson, (2012). The permeability range usually varies between below 0.01 millidarcy
(mD) and more than 1 Darcy where 0.1 mD is usually considered a small permeability value for
an oil reservoir but still viable for a gas reservoir (Ganat, 2020). A microscale grain distribution
analysis reveals that various grain sizes and types influence permeability. Permeability usually
decreases with a reduction in grain size (Fanchi, 2001). Satter and Iqbal (2016) note that
significantly higher rock permeability values result generally in good productivity and improved

5
reservoir recovery efficiency. Terry and Rogers (2015) discuss the history of development of
flow equation by a French engineer Henry Darcy in 1856, which is now one of the main
petroleum engineer mathematical tools, in Darcy's law the velocity of a homogenous fluid is
proportional to the driving force and inversely proportional to the viscosity of the fluid.

q −k dp
v= = - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (2)
A c μ dl

Where, v is the velocity of the fluid (cm/s), q is flow rate (cm 3/s), k is rock permeability (Darcy),
and Ac is core sample cress sectional is (cm2).

2.2.3. Fluid Saturation

The storage capacity and the conducting capacity of rock have been discussed in the
earlier sections on porosity and permeability. A further important point, in addition to porosity
and permeability, mus t be defined for the reservoir engineer is saturation. Hu et al., (2017) state
that in every step of reservoir production information of fluid saturation is important, for
instance, it is used to measure the original gas or oil in place, identification of reservoir zones,
and it also participates in the enhanced of oil recovery process evaluation. Wheaton, (2016)
defined saturation as the fraction of the pore space occupied by a given phase either oil, water or
gas. The following formulas represent the saturation ratio in the porous medium for each phase
(Ganat, 2020):

Volume of oil
So= - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (3)
Pore volume

Volume of water
Sw= - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (4)
Pore volume

Volume of gas
S g= - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (5)
Pore volume

The saturation ranges from 0 to 100% in every single phase, the summation of the saturations is
100% (Ahmed, 2006,).

6
S o+ S w +S g=1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (6)

Where (So) is oil saturation, (Sw) is water saturation, and (Sg) is gas saturation.

The reservoirs have the supremacy of a particular fluid saturation at different depths
because fluid densities are different, for instance, gas cap can overlie and formation water can
underlie the oil zone in case of high oil saturation zone (Satter et al., 2008). Other than density,
interfacial tension (IFT) and wettability change the distribution of the three fluids in the reservoir
(Tiab and Donaldson, 2012). Besides bottom water, connate water is dispersed in the oil and gas
zones (Ahmed, 2006). Connate water saturation is the saturation of water trapped in the pores
spaces during rock formation before oil migration (Hu et al., 2017). Fluid saturation in the
reservoir is usually not predicted in laterally to vary significantly unless geological barriers occur,
nevertheless, as a result of capillary effects they vary vertically in transition zones (Hu et al.,
2017).

Terry and Rogers (2015) describe two methods to calculate initial fluid saturations which
are generally available: direct method (which is retort) and indirect method (which is ASTM), the
direct method requires either extracting the fluids from the reservoir or from a sample of the rock,
and the indirect approach is focused on measuring other properties, like the capillary pressure and
the establishment of a mathematical relation between the measured property and saturation.

The following explains fluid saturations in a reservoir that are landmarks:

Irreducible Saturation

Hu et al., (2017, p.71) define and describe irreducible saturation as the portion of pore
space occupied by gas, oil or water before production is known as irreducible saturation or initial
saturation. Furthermore, the initial saturation of crude oil and gas is important for the
identification of the geological reserves of crude oil and gas and the reservoir production
performance, but it is not easy to accurately identify.

Critical Gas Saturation

When the pressure from the reservoir falls below the bubble point, gas develops in the oil
phase and the saturation of the gas increases with the pressure of the reservoir decreasing
(Ahmed, 2006,).

7
Movable Oil Saturation

Not all oil is producible during the life cycle of a reservoir, the engineers, therefore it
needs to estimate the movable oil saturation under the primary and different mechanisms of
improved production when the reservoir is abandoned, the volume of oil left behind suggests
residual oil saturation, and the following represents the movable oil saturation (Satter and Iqbal,
2016).

S om=S oi – S∨¿ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (7)

Where, (Som) is movable oil saturation, (Soi) is initial oil saturation and (S or) is residual oil
saturation.

Residual Oil Saturation

At the end of the reservoirs production life, the oil saturation left in the reservoir is known
as the residual saturation of the crude oil, several researchers have chosen the name of remaining
oil saturation (Satter et al., 2008).

2.2.4. Wettability

Wettability is defined as the interaction of two immiscible phases (e.g. oil and water) and
a solid surface such as the pores of a reservoir rock (Holstein, 2006).

σ os −σ ws =σ ow cos θ c - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (8)

Where, ¿ ¿) is IFT between oil and solid, (σ ¿ ¿ ws)¿ is IFT between water and solid, ¿ ¿ is IFT
between oil and water, and ¿ is the contact angle between oil and water.

Fluid spreading tendency can be more easily represented as adhesion tension (AT).

Adhesion tension is a function of the IFT and defines which fluid typically wets the solid
(Dandekar, 2006).

AT =σ os−σ ws - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (9)

8
 It is the primary factor responsible for the microscopic distribution of fluid in porous
media and it essentially determines the residual oil saturation and the ability to flow in a specific
phase (Mehdi et al., 2018). In a rock-fluid system, wettability is depending on IFT, so altering the
rock or fluid type will alter IFT and then system wettability (Fanchi, 2001). The wettability of
reservoir rock can be changed when it comes into contact with injected water, in order to change
wettability, other chemical compounds can be combined with injecting water to promote recovery
(Satter and Iqbal, 2016). If a solid surface is in contact with two immiscible phases, one phase
usually attracts stronger to the solid than the other phase (Green and Willhite, 2018). Due to
attractive forces, the non-wetting phase takes place in the larger pores and the wetting phase
usually takes place in the smaller pores of the rock (Ahmed, 2006). Oil is usually found in the
center of pore spaces in water-wet systems, and oil is kept around solid grains in oil-wet systems,
and regards to both water and oil, gas will typically be a non-wetting phase (Wheaton, 2016).

The system is named as oil-wet when θ > 90º and oil spread over the solid surface and
named as water-wet when θ < 90º and water spread over the solid surface (Ganat, 2020). The
system is intermediate wet when the adhesion tension value is zero, and this means that the
contact angle is 90°, in which the rock has no strong predilection either for water or oil (Mehdi et
al., 2018) (Refer to Fig. 2). The system is named fractional wettability when distributed areas are
oil-wet throughout the rock, and the rest of the area is water-wet, fractional wettability also
called, spotted, Dalmatian or heterogeneous wettability (Hu et al., 2017). Dandekar (2006)
explains another type of wettability which is suggested by Salathiel is mixed wettability, when
smaller pores are water-wet, while the oil preferably wets the interconnected larger pores.
Regards to both water and oil, gas will typically be a non-wetting phase (Wheaton, 2016).

The simplest way to determine the wettability of the rock is by putting a drop of water on
the rock in the existence of oil and calculating the contact angle between water and rock (Satter
and Iqbal, 2016). Another method is Ammot cell, principally is a macroscopic determination of
wettability, the measurement involves the calculation of fluid volumes imbibed in the core
sample (Ganat, 2020).

9
 Figure 2: Degrees of wetting of rock surface by liquids. (a) oil-wet, (b) intermediate wet and (c) water-
wet.

2.2.5. Interfacial Tension (IFT) and Surface Tension (ST)

Up to three phases of fluids (water, oil, and gas) exist in petroleum reservoirs. All these
phases are immiscible under the appropriate conditions in the reservoirWhen two of these fluids
come into contact (liquid-liquid or gas-liquid), the liquids are separated by a given interface,
which is a few molecular diameters thick (Tiab and Donaldson, 2012). This thickness has been
reported in order of 10-7 mm (Satter and Iqbal, 2016). The tension at the liquid-liquid interface
between two liquids defined as interfacial tension (IFT), and the tension at the liquid-gas
interface between fluids defined as surface tension (ST) (Fanchi, 2001). IFT and ST are two
characteristics of fluids, not rocks, in spite of that Dandekar (2006) emphasized that it seriously
affects other important rock characteristics such as wettability, capillary pressure, and relative
permeability, all of that successively affect petroleum reservoir recovery. To have a better
understanding of this phenomena look at Fig. 3, liquid molecules that are far from the interface,
enclosed by other liquid molecules in all sides, therefore the resulting net attractive force on the

10
liquid is equal to zero (Ahmed, 2006). Nevertheless, an interface molecule has force acting on it
from the oil located directly above the interface and molecules of water located beneath the
interface, the resultant forces are not balanced since they vary in the magnitude of forces and
result in interfacial tension (Dandekar, 2006). Satter et al., (2008) point out that, this phenomenon
leads to immiscibility between the two fluids, which creates a certain fluid flow resistance in a
porous medium

Figure 3: The idea of IFT between two immiscible liquids Dandekar (2006, p.111).

Usually, the IFT units are represented in mN/m or in Dyn/cm (Fanchi, 2001). According
to Terry and Rogers (2015), the value of IFT between oil-brine is in the range of 20 to 30
dyns/cm.

It is important to understand the factors that affect IFT. Therefore, Hu et al., (2017)
mention that different compositions of fluids, temperature, and pressure can seriously affect IFT
between two liquids. Lyons and Plisga (2005) indicate that IFT decreases with increasing the

11
temperature of the system or API of crude oil. Terry and Rogers (2015) state that, it is possible to
decrease IFT between oil-brine by adding some chemicals.

Laboratory measurements of IFT can be done by several methods. Dandekar (2006)

names some methods including the Wilhelmy plate method, DuNouy ring method, spinning drop
method, and the maximum pull force method, but he also mentions that the most widely used
method in the petroleum industry is pendant drop method.

2.2.6. Capillary Pressure

The previous part explained why one phase "wets" a porous surface over the other when
two immiscible fluid phases like oil and water coexist within the porous media. Tiab and
Donaldson (2012) define capillary pressure as the pressure difference between the non-wetting
and wetting phase:

P c=P nw – P w - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (10)

Furthermore, they say, if the system is intermediate wet (θ = 90), capillary pressure is
equal to zero, and if the system is oil-wet (θ > 90), capillary pressure is positive. The pressure of
the non-wetting phase is greater than that of the wetting phase (Satter et al., 2008). Terry and
Rogers (2015) express capillary pressure (Pc) in psi with respect to oil-water IFT (σow) in
dyns/cm, capillary radius (rc) in ft, and contact angle between oil-water (θ) as:

9.519(10)−7 σ ow cos θ
Pc = - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (11)
rc

The capillary pressure increases with the capillary radius decreasing. Therefore, the
capillary pressure appears to be greater in small pores (Baker et al., 2015). Capillary pressure is a
function of interfacial tension, capillary radius and fluid saturation (Ahmed, 2006). For
measuring capillary pressure Ganat (2020) describes three laboratory methods including mercury
injection method, porous plate diaphragm method, and centrifugal method.

12
Drainage and Imbibition

Drainage and imbibition are two simple processes that may occur in a porous medium that
is saturated with oil and water when the wetting phase displace the non-wetting phase and non-
wetting phase displaces wetting phase, these two processes are known as imbibition and drainage
respectively Dandekar (2006). Fig. 4 shows a water-wet rock sample saturated with water. In
drainage process as the pressure increases, more water is displaced slowly until a limit is reached
and water can no longer be displaced, the water saturation at this limit is irreducible water
saturation, and in imbibition process when the pressure reaches zero, the reservoir still contains
some oil, oil saturation at this point is residual oil saturation to water (Baker et al., 2015).

Figure 4: Capillary pressure versus water saturation, drainage and imbibition curve (Baker et al., 2015).

Capillary Number

The capillary number is the ratio between viscous forces and which influence the flow of
fluid in porous media, and it is dimensionless (Tiab and Donaldson, 2012):

13
 uμ
N C= - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (12)
∅σ

Where, (∅) is porosity, (u) is Darcy velocity of the displacing fluid, (σ) IFT between displaced
and displacing fluid, (μ) displacing fluid viscosity.

Fluid viscosity, flow velocity and flow distance define the viscous forces, and interfacial
tension means capillary pressure Dandekar (2006). When the capillary number is increase by
decreasing the interfacial tension and oil viscosity in an improved oil recovery process, the rest of
the oil saturation decreases (Satter et al., 2008). Terry and Rogers (2015) sketched the capillary
number correlation in which capillary number versus the ratio of residual oil saturation value
before and after enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as shown in Fig. 5. The correlation indicated that
for mobilizing unconnected oil droplets a capillary number larger than 10-5 is required.

Figure 5: Capillary number correlation (Terry and Rogers, 2015).

14
2.2.7. Relative Permeability

Flowing reservoirs usually contain multiple fluids (multi-phase flow), in which the
capacity to flow in one phase is subjected to the presence of other phases Ganat (2020).
Therefore, it is important to introduce and define the principle of relative permeability in order to
properly explain simultaneous multi-phase fluid flow characteristics in oil reservoirs Dandekar
(2006). Furthermore, Satter and Iqbal (2016) state that, In designing secondary and enhanced oil
recovery operations, reservoir engineers are looking for detailed knowledge about the
permeability of fluids in predicting reservoir performance. Relative permeability is defined as the
effective permeability of a fluid phase divided by absolute permeability, it is dimensionless and
expresses as (Satter et al., 2008):

Ko
K ro = - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (13)
K

Kw
K rw = - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (14)
K

Kg
K rg = - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (15)
K

According to Baker et al., (2015), relative permeability does not only depend on fluid
saturation, but also wettability, pore structure, the ratio of the capillary to viscous force,
interfacial tension, and saturation history can influence relative permeability.

As mentioned previously, due to attractive forces, the non-wetting phase takes place in the
larger pores and the wetting phase usually takes place in the smaller pores of the rock (Ahmed,
2006). Therefore, be said relative permeability of the wetting phase is zero, at this water
saturation is irreducible water saturation Swir or connate water saturation Scw Ganat (2020). The
typical plot of oil and water relative permeability curves is shown in Fig. 6, depending on the
water saturation for a specific rock. At the point of irreducible water saturation relative
permeability of water is equal to zero (Satter et al., 2008). The increasing water saturation
decreases the relative permeability of the oil and the relative permeability of the water increases
until no more water moves oil (Wheaton, 2016).

15
 Figure 6: Typical relative permeability curves of water-wet system (Terry and Rogers, 2015).

2.2.8. Oil Recovery Mechanisms

Generally, petroleum recovery operations are divided into three stages: primary,
secondary and tertiary (Green and Willhite, 2018). Petroleum reservoirs produce naturally during
primary recovery, but energy is supplied to the reservoir by injecting water or gas or chemicals to
drive oil and gas during secondary and tertiary recovery (Satter and Iqbal, 2016). The first stage
of hydrocarbon production is the primary recovery, characterized by the production using natural
reservoir energy resources only (Terry and Rogers, 2015). These natural energy sources are an
expansion of rock-fluid, Solution gas drive, gas-cap drive, water drive (aquifer), gravity
segregation drive, and combination drive. These natural energies of the reservoir decrease with
time and thus lead to lower the primary recovery and leave much oil in the reservoir, hence,
secondary recovery required to maintain reservoir pressure to displace the remained oil (Tewari
et al., 2019).

16
 Secondary recovery is hydrocarbon recovery involving the implementation of artificial
energy into the reservoir via an injection well and hydrocarbon production from a production
well (Lyons and Plisga, 2005). According to Terry and Rogers (2015), there are two types of
secondary recovery (water flooding and gas injection), and water flooding is the most widely
used method. Waterflooding maintains reservoir pressure and displaces oil toward producing
well. High efficiency of water for displacing oil as well as it is easy for injection and inexpensive
are some reasons why waterflooding is successful (Satter et al., 2008). In gas injection, gas
injected into oil column to displace oil immiscible or into the gas cap to pressure maintenance
and gas cap expansion (Hu et al., 2017).

The third recovery mechanism is a tertiary recovery. This technique is implemented after
secondary recovery when recovery potential is low (Terry and Rogers, 2015). In petroleum
engineering literature the term "tertiary recovery" was dislike, the term "enhanced oil recovery"
(EOR) was more approved (Green and Willhite, 2018). EOR methods are generally classified as
one of the following processes: chemical, miscible, thermal, and microbial (Fanchi, 2001). Satter
and Iqbal (2016) claim that based on worldwide statistics the cumulative recovery for primary
recovery is (10-30 %), for secondary recovery is (20-40 %), and for tertiary recovery is (30-60
%).

2.2.9. Enhanced Oil Recovery

Miscible

Miscibility could obtain as two fluids entirely mix with each other and single phases are
impossible to differentiate. Methods of miscible flooding contain carbon dioxide, natural gas
injection and nitrogen injection. To make certain miscibility betwixt the injected gas and in situ
oil the miscible gas injection should be carried out at high pressure. Miscible displacement
mechanism includes the injection of light hydrocarbon components inside the reservoir (Fanchi
2018). Producing miscibility betwixt the light to the intermediate component of injected fluid and
oil can recover crude oil. The second mechanism contains oil volume increase and viscosity
decrease and also to a greater degree of the sweep of the reservoir (Labal, 2017). As the
interfacial tension (IFT) in the middle of aqueous and oleic phases is greatly decreased the

17
miscibility obtains (Fanch 2018). The miscibility in the reservoir achieved by utilizing minimum
miscibility pressure (MMP) and FCM. MMP is defined as the pressure at which injected gas
melts crude oil and make an individual system. The process of FCM contains injecting the
primary slug which mixes with crude oil (Tiware et al., 2018). The microscopic displacement
efficiency is significantly fewer than unity in the case of immiscible displacement such as
waterflood. Displacing fluid helps the portion of crude oil to contact in the places. Hence, trapped
as stringers pendular rings or isolate drops according to the wettability. IFT is ignored, when two
fluids not mixed all parts to make individual phases the process is defined as immiscible
(Doherty, 2018). Greater than 50% world oil source is heavy for additional heavy oil. Heat is
carrying out to inject inside viscous reservoirs for decreasing the viscosity and also to
determining the flow from the reservoir to surface (Tiware et al., 2018). Since the temperature of
crude oil increased by 100F to 200F greater than the normal temperature of the reservoir the oil
viscosity will be decreased and the flow becomes much more easy for generating well (Terry and
Rogers, 2018).

Thermal

Mechanisms of thermal flooding contain steam drive, steam sack, hot water injection, and
situ combustions. In shallow reservoirs that include high viscosity electrical mechanisms can use
to heat the fluid. The steam injection includes injecting steam into the reservoir but in situ
combustion mechanism determines to inject of compressed air after ignited the in situ oil. Due to
easy producing hot water and steam the steam and hot water injection mechanisms are the most
important thermal mechanisms. Due to easy producing hot water and steam the steam and hot
water injection mechanisms are the most important thermal mechanisms. The in situ combustion
case is harder to control and it determines in situ oil (Fanchi, 2018).

Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery

For chemical flooding processes one or more chemical compounds are added to an
injected fluid, either to minimize the interfacial tension (IFT) between reservoir oil and injected
fluid or to enhance the sweeping efficiency of the injected fluid by making it viscous, thus
improving the mobility rate (Terry and Rogers, 2015). Chemical flooding method is implemented
for recovering reservoir oils that have a higher viscosity than oils which recovered by gas

18
injection method, but for oils that have very high viscosity thermal method is better (Lyons and
Plisga, 2005). Polymer, surfactant and alkaline, and any combination of them are the most
common processes in chemically enhanced oil recovery (cEOR) (Hu et al., 2017).

Polymer Flooding

High mobility ratios adversely affect displacement and sweep efficiency and cause the
injected water to breakthrough earlier (Lyons and Plisga, 2005). Polymers works to reduce the
mobility ratio and improve the fluid flow behavior of the displacement process by increasing
water injected viscosity containing polymer (Fanchi, 2001). The waterflooding mobility ratio can
be reduced by approximately 10 by adding polymer to the water (Hu et al., 2017). By improving
mobility ratio better vertical and horizontal sweep efficiency achieve (Satter and Iqbal, 2016).
Polymers are usually added to the water at concentrations between (250 and 2000 ppm) (Terry
and Rogers, 2015). According to (Hu et al., 2017) polymer flooding is applicable for reservoirs
that have permeability higher than 20 mD, temperature less than 200 °F, and oil viscosity less
than 200 cp.

There are two types of polymers, biopolymers and synthetic polymers (Sheng, 2011).
Biopolymers (such as xanthan gum (XG) and guar gum) increase the viscosity of the polymer
solution but do not affect the water relative permeability, but synthetic polymers (such as
polyacrylic acid, polyacrylamide (PAM), hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM)) increase the
viscosity of the polymer solution and decrease the water relative permeability (Tewari et al.,
2019).

Surfactant Flooding

Surfactants are chemical substances which when present in a system at low

concentrations, adsorb or concentrate on a surface or fluid-fluid interface, and decrease interfacial
tension (Green and Willhite, 2018). Surfactants in their most common form are a hydrocarbon
chain (non-polar) and an ionic group (polar), the hydrocarbon chain “tail” known as a
hydrophobic and ionic group “head” known as hydrophilic (Hu et al., 2017). According to the
ionic groups, surfactants can be categorized as anionic, cationic, nonionic and zwitterionic (Green
and Willhite, 2018). Anionic surfactants are most commonly used in chemical EOR than cationic
surfactants because they have a low tendency to adsorb on sandstone rocks, but cationic

19
surfactants usually used to carbonate rocks to change wettability in oil-wet to water-wet (Sheng,
2011). High areal sweep requirement, surfactant adsorption in rocks, high materials cost,
ineffective in heterogeneous reservoirs, material degradation under high temperatures, and some
other reasons make surfactant flooding limited and not applicable for all conditions (Satter and
Iqbal, 2016).

Alkaline Flooding

The mixture of alkaline and crude oil can form surfactant molecules. The interfacial
tension between the oil and brine phases can be reduced when surfactant molecules occur in situ.
Reduced interface tensions increase the microscopic efficiency of displacement and thus increase
oil recovery (Terry and Rogers, 2015). Emulsification and entrainment, wettability alteration
from oil-wet to water-wet, wettability alteration from water-wet to oil-wet, emulsification and
entrapment are four of the most common types alkaline. Some other mechanisms are discussed
include wettability gradients, oil phase swelling, emulsification with coalescence, and low IFT
(Green and Willhite, 2018). In alkaline flooding, clay content should not greater than 15- 25 %,
because alkaline consumption will increase and this is not economical, the permeability of the
reservoir should be higher than 100 mD, and viscosity of oil should not be greater than 50-100 cp
(Hu et al., 2017). The combination of alkaline flooding, surfactant flooding, and polymer
flooding is so-called alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding (ASP) (Sheng, 2011).

2.3. Literature Review

2.3.1. Application of Ultrasonic Wave in Enhanced Oil Recover

Wang et al., (2020) investigated advances of ultrasonic wave effects on production in

china, they concluded that the ultrasonic oil recovery technique has greater advantages compared
with chemical or thermal technique, and it has a great effect on improving production.
Abdulfatah (2018) studied that ultrasonic waves assisted water flooding in reservoirs that have
permeability and porosity greater than 20 mD and 15% respectively, can increase oil recovery up
to 50 %. The effect of ultrasonic waves on imbibition process for sandstone and limestone using
air, water, and surfactants as wetting phase, and kerosene and mineral oil as a non-wetting phase

20
by Hamida and Babadagli (2005), they discovered that ultrasonic waves can reduce IFT
immiscible fluids and additional oil recovery was obtained. (Agi et al., 2018) used an Intermittent
ultrasonic waved instead of continuous wave, they discovered that intermittent vibration is more
efficient for oil recovery compared with continuous vibration, and it is more cost-effective.

21
 Figure 7: the schematic diagram of oil recovery by ultrasonic wave. (1) Reservoir; (2) ultrasonic
equipment; (3) packer; (4) tubing; (5) casing valve; (6) lubricator; (7) flow outline; (8) cable feed; (9)
cable; (10) wireline truck;(11) pump (Wang et al., 2020)

22
 Table 1: Recent works of EOR assisted ultrasonic wave.

Recovery Wave Wave Porous media Type of oil Results References

method freq. intensity
  [kHz] [W]        
Waterflooding 40 100–500 Unconsolidated Kerosene 3-16 % oil recovery increased and unstable Mohammadian
sand pack Vaseline emulsification generated as well as oil viscosity et al., (2013)
SAE- 10 decreased and cavitation was determined.
Water and 40 150-500 Unconsolidated Paraffin 11 % oil recovery increased with waterflooding and Agi et al.,
surfactant sand pack 12% with surfactant flooding. Furthermore, (2019)
flooding surfactant adsorption decreased
CO2 flooding 40 500 Sand pack Paraffin The highest recovery achieved under an uncontrolled Hamidi et al.,
temperature system and with an injection rate of (2017)
10cc/min was 40.9 %. And as stable interface created
between CO2 and paraffine due to reduction in
viscosity, capillary number an IFT.
Waterflooding 500 Sandstone and Mineral oil Relative permeability changed, and lead to higher oil Ragab et al.,
carbonate production. The ultrasonic wave has a greater effect (2015)
on lo reservoir permeability.
Waterflooding 50 300 Unconsolidated Light crude Results showed a change in relative permeability and Amro et al.,
and consolidate oil in water breakthrough. Waves have a higher effect on (2007)
sandstone residual oil saturation than initial oil saturation for oil
recovery. The ultrasonic wave was better with the
consolidating sample.

23
2.3.2. Application of Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery

This chapter briefly shows the previous works and discusses the results that have been
established so far. Gbadamosi et al., (2019) states that using nanoparticles with polyacrylamide
causes an enhancement in rheological properties, as well as reducing the degradation of polymer
molecules while having temperature and hardness brine. On the same work they achieved that
there is a better steady shear performance with Al2O3 polymeric nanofluid under different
concentrations of electrolytes and temperature conditions. On the other hand, interfacial tension
test results show that the Al2O3 polymeric nanofluid changes the wettability from oil-wet to
water-wet and reduces the IFT of the oil/water interface. Moghaddam et al., (2015) during their
experiments of spontaneous imbibition and core flooding showed that both (CaCO3) and (SiO2)
have a great effect on enhanced oil recovery. And they determine after nanofluids injected the
rock surface wettability had altered to more water-wet and nanoparticle layer close the contact
point disjoining pressure could be high to take away oil from the surface. Hendraingrant et al.,
(2013) by some experiment of hydrophilic nanoparticles they examined the interfacial tension
reduced when the concentration of nanofluid gets high and these showed a prospective of EOR.
And with a high concentration of hydrophilic nanoparticles, the contact angle of the aqueous
phase reduced and altered wettability. They tested nanoparticles with some different
concentrations then they found the optimum concentration was 0.1 wt% at that concentration
contact angle was reduced 20 degrees and IFT at a concentration of 0.05 wt% was equal to 7.9
mN/m and at optimum concentration, the IFT also decline with the equal trend. Roustaei and his
friends (2012) to understanding the IFT reduction and recovery of oil they tested hydrophobic
and lipophilic polysilicon (HLP) and naturally wet polysilicon (NWP). The result determined less
water-wet condition and interfacial tension reduced from 26.3 mN/m to 1.75 mN/m and 2.55
mN/m later than utilization of both HLP and NWP severely. And when 4.3 gr/lit of HLP and
NWP nanofluids injected inside the core samples the recovery of oil was raised to 32.2% and
28.55% respectively. Ehtesabi et al., (2013) discovered that Anatase and amorphous TiO2
nanoparticles improve heavy oil recovery in sandstone cores. Only 49% of the oil recovered in
experiments of core flooding from water recovered then anatase structure solution of 0.01% after
injected two-pore volume at the condition of optimum recovered 80% of oil. Measurements of
contact angle revealed that the wettability of rock converted from oil-wet to water-wet condition.

24
In a concentration of 0.01 wt% when the concentration of nanoparticles got high more nanorods
with equal diameter were compiled which outcome to present in plugging. This showed the
importance of TIO2 in Enhanced oil recovery. Zhang et al., (2014) studied the imbibition
experiments by both reservoir brine solution and reservoir crude oil with suitable nanofluid and
high salinity that moved crude oil from single glass capillary and Berea sandstone. Later
experiments the result showed by using the Illinois Institute of Technology IIT nanofluid the rate
of crude oil recovered from Berea sandstone was 50% and by brine solution alone was 17%.
Rezvani and his friends (2018) examined a nanocomposite known (FeO4) coated with chitosan in
laboratory and showed the importance of it in EOR.as the temperature and nanocomposite
concentration got high the IFT was reduced in the seawater as the concentration of
nanocomposite raised the recovery of oil was improved as a result of wettability alteration of
water-wet status. And they discovered the degree of contact angle reduced of 42 to 53 for 0.01,
0.02 and 0.03 wt% nanocomposite at ambient status. And for the concentration of nanocomposite
(0.03 wt%)the rate of recovered oil reached 10.8% in flooding experiment compared with
seawater. Farther more, Roustaei (2015) studied the effect of SiO2 nanoparticles on wettability in
the carbonate reservoir rock. The result showed that the nanofluid concentration of 4g/l altered
wettability of rock in strongly water-wet to strongly oil-wet status and a large amount of oil
recovered after injected water to the aged core plug with nanofluid. Hence the average recovery
rose to greater than 67 and 76% severally in both samples. So it revealed that an important
amount of oil could produce after the process of primary and secondary recovery. Li and
Torseater (2015) during their work they conducted two experiments for 20 core plugs one was
wettability index measurement and the other was nanoparticle transport. The results showed that
both hydrophilic silica nanostructure (NSP) particles and hydrophilic silica colloidal
nanoparticles (CNP) due to the adsorption of nanoparticles changed the wettability of oil Berea
sandstone to more water-wet. And proved that the adsorption of NSP is much stronger than the
adsorption of CNP. And when the concentration of NSP and CNP got high the contact angle
reduced. Bila et al., (2019) discovered a potency of different polymer-coated silica nanoparticles
(points) such as cumulative for the seawater injection to oil recovery. The result of the
experiment showed the (psinps) increased the waterflood efficiency of oil recovery. The total
recovery of nanofluid in the secondary process was between 60-70% of OOIP compared to
reference waterflood which recovered 56% OOIP. And the IFT with (psinps) decreased from

25
10.6 to 2.5-6.8 mN/m which had a minor impact on EOR. Also, they determined that wettability
altered from neutral to water wet status. Zaid et al., (2014) during their experiment they proved
that novel EOR recovery mechanism. Better sweep efficiency was obtained when the ratio of
mobility between oil and water decreased. With nanofluidic itself, the optimum recovery was
obtained in the injection of AL2O3 nanofluid with 32.88% ROIP. Rate of recovered oil raised
about 11.8% compared with of ZnO nanofluid and compared with SDS the rate of recovery
raised about 41.2%. Giraldo et al., (2013) by dispersed alumina nanoparticle in an anionic
surfactant or in the water they discovered the alteration of wettability of sandstone cores. They
proved alumina-based nanofluid altered oil-wet from strongly oil-wet to strongly water-wet
status. And During their work, they obtained an important wettability restoration which used
nanofluid with a concentration of nanoparticle about 100 ppm. Huibers and his friends (2017)
showed the wettability alteration of Boise and Berea oil-wet sandstone by studied the surfactant
nanofluid system with light crude oil and heavy crude oil. They proved that both silica NPS and
surfactant act like one of the efficient processes to alter the wettability of both Boise and Berea
sandstones which determined by the raised contact angle. In crude oil, the contact angle was most
affected by increasing of 0.001% wt% NP. This altered wettability and it unaffected in crude oil
when added to higher NPS concentration.

Based on the idea that focuses on achieving a good recovery factor by reducing IFT and
increasing the viscosity of the injected fluid, (Sharma et al., 2016) worked on improving EOR by
adding Silica (SiO2) nanofluid with (NSP) or without (NP) sodium dodecyl sulfate considering
various nanoparticle concentrations. The nanoparticles were made using polyacrylamide and they
were characterized by potential and DLS measurements. The IFT reduction and EOR efficiencies
of nanofluids were compared with conventional polymer and surfactant polymer flooding
schemes. The Silica nanofluid had a significant effect on increasing oil recovery.

26
 Table 2: Recent works of nanofluid in EOR.

Dispersion Porous Oil

IFT [mN/m] CA [degree]
Nanomaterial media NPs conc. media Recovery References

          Clean With NP Clean With NP [OOIP %]  

Fe3O4@SiO2@xanthan DW 250-1500 [ppm] Carbonate 28.3 4.35 134 28 - Ali et al., (2020)

SiO2 Xanthan gum 0.1-0.5 [wt%] Sandstone 17.8 6.4 86 20 7.81 Saha et al., (2018)

ZnO SDS 0.05 [wt%] Carbonate 2.8 3.5 22.5 72.2 - Zaid et al., (2014)

Fe3O4@chitosan Brine 0.01-0.03 [wt%] Sandstone 30 17.3 127 92 10.8 Rezvani et al., (2018)

Al2O3 DIW 0.005 [wt%] Limestone 21 11 82 61 9.9 Bayat et al., (2014)

TiO2 DIW 0.005 [wt%] 21 12.5 82 46 6.6

SiO2 DIW 0.005 [wt%] 21 13 82 18 2.9

Al2O3 CTAB 0.05 [wt%] Dolomite 8.46 1.65 70 52 - Moslan et al., (2017)

SDS 9.88 2.75 92 75 -

TX-100 9.13 2.55 85 62 -

ZrO2 CTAB 0.05 [wt%] 8.46 1.85 70 60 -

SDS 9.88 2.78 92 84 -

TX-100 9.13 2.64 85 71 -

SiO2 L-Arg 1000 [ppm] Carbonate 35 15 144 57 13.1 Asl et al., (2020)

L-Cys 35 14.5 144 49 12.7

27
SiO2 Brine 1-6 [g/L] Carbonate 26.5 38.4 35 130 12
Roustaei and
Bagherzadeh (2015)

TiO2/Quartz DW 250-1000 [ppm] Carbonate 36.14 3.51 - 48 21 Zargar et al., (2020)

HiSal 31.13 8.51 - 105 10

MoSal - 14.85 - 69 12

LoSal 21.32 12.34 - 51 17

Fe3O4/EDTA Tween-80 0.1-0.9 [wt%] Carbonate - - 140 27 13.49 Shalbafan et al., (2019)

Fe3O4/SLS - - 140 22 20

SiO2/Poly2(DMAEA) 0.1 [wt%] Sandstone 27 14 85 62.2 9.9 Qi et al., (2018)

28
3. Materials and Methodology

3.1. Materials

In this project water has been gathered from the Persian Gulf to prepare nanofluids and
has been identified as having different ionic concentrations and salt composition as shown in
Table 3. Crude oil took from Gachsaran reservoir with API and viscosity of 31.14 and 87 cp,
respectively, and different components as shown in Table 4, used for IFT, contact angle,
imbibition. In Asmari formation in Khuzestan a sample of carbonate rock was obtained and used
for the experiments. The XRD analysis in the Fig. 8 shows that the carbonate rock samples
contain 61% dolomite, 39% calcite and no clay. For preparing stable nanofluids (NF), TiO 2 nano-
particles in 10, 20 and 30 nm sizes were used for IFT, contact angle and adsorption tests. for 10,
20 and 30 nm nanoparticles, a Specific Surface Area (SSA) equal to 200–240, 45–60 and 10–35
m2/g, respectively, and the nanoparticles that are used in all three sizes are 99% pure. Stable TiO 2
nanofluid is shown in Fig. 9 and TEM images of the nanoparticle is shown in Fig. 10.
Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite were prepared and used for imbibition test under effect of
ultrasonic wave.

Figure 8: XRD analysis of the Asmari carbonate rock.

29
 Table 3: Composition of Gachsaran crude oil.
C11 C12+ Total

0.00 0.08 0.73 0.72 2.22 1.10 1.10 8.66 9.32 6.60 7.14 5.36 5.01 51.96 100
Total hardness [ppm] 8700
Sodium absorption Ratio 34.2
Sodium percent solution 64
Total cations [mEq/lit] 495.37
C10

Potassium [mEq/lit] 2.37

C9

Sodium [mEq/lit] 319

C8

Magnesium [mEq/lit] 78
Calcium [mEq/lit] 96
C7

Total anions [mEq/lit] 470.6

Saturation pressure of reservoir fluid @ 60.6 °C = 14.04 MPa.
C6

Sulfate[mEq/lit] 143.6
iC4 nC4 iC5 nC5

Chloride [mEq/lit] 324

Bicarbonate [mEq/lit] 3
Specific gravity of C12+ @ 15.55 °C = 0.9369.

PH 7.67
TDS [mg/lit] 33194
Molecular weight of C12+ = 380 g/gmol.
C3

Molecular weight = 247 g/gmol.

C2
C1
Component

Molar %

30
 a b c

Table 4: Analysis of the seawater.

Figure 9: TEM images of TiO2 nanoparticles with different sizes: (a) 10 nm (b) 20 nm and (c) 30 nm.

Figure 10: stability of TiO2 nanoparticles at 10 nm particle sizes and different concentrations.

31
3.2. Preparation and Characteristics of Fe3O4@quartz Nanocomposite

Initially, Euodia hortensis leaf extract was prepared by adding 50 gm of dried leaf
powdered of the plant to 250 mL double distillated water in 500 mL flask and well mixed. The
preparation of extract was using magnetic heating stirrer at 70 °C for 30 min. The obtained
extract was centrifuged in 7000 rpm and filtered then filtrate was kept at refrigerator to use
further. Afterwards in order to synthesize the NC, 5 gm FeCl3·6H2O was mixed with 100 mL of
the aqueous Euodia hortensis extract and 12 gm natural quartz powder (Mineral soil) at pH 10 (as
adjusted using Na2CO3 0.1 M) in a 250 mL conical flask. The mixing was continued along with
the vigorous shaking until gradually changing the color of the mixture to dark indicating the
formation of Fe3O4@quartz NC. The well shacked mixture then filtered and centrifuged at 7000
rpm for 30 min and obtained precipitation washed with n-hexane and absolute ethanol to remove
possible impurities. Finally, the dried and cleaned synthesized nanocomposite was collected and
characterized as ready to be used for EOR applications. In addition, the technique of scanning
electron microscope (SEM) was used to describe the shape and size of nanocomposite Fe3O4@
quartz to determine the accuracy of the synthesized nanocomposite. In addition, the mineralogy
of prepared nanomaterials is analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Fig. 11 shows the comprehensive procedure steps of preparing
NC.

Figure 11: schematic diagram of Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite preparation process.

32
3.3. Preparation and Characteristics of Nanofluid

A number of Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite concentrations (250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm)
was dispersed in distilled water to design novel nanofluids in this research Table 5. The
preparation of nanofluids with the operating temperature less than 30 °C has been carried out
with a magnetic agitator (LABINCO L81) 600 rpm during 5 hr. Nanofluids used in this analysis
have been combined for 2 hr with (VIP 200HD) ultrasonic mixer waves at 400 W to achieve high
Fe3O4@quartz nanocomposite stability. The density meters PAAR, Mettler Toledo S230 and
WTWTM inoLabTM Cond 7310 have been used to calculate the characteristics of prepared
nanofluids.

Table 5: Nanofluid formulation prepared in this research.

Nanofluids NC conc. Density PH Conductivity

[ppm] [g/cm3] [μS/cm]

NF250 250 1.015 6.7 20.6

NF500 500 1.019 6.79 34.4
NF750 750 1.022 6.93 37.2
NF1000 1000 1.025 6.99 55.8

3.3. IFT Measurement

The pendant drop tools were used for IFT calculation. As Fig. 12 shows the schematic
diagram of the test, all which is required is a narrow needle, a camera, and a light. All tests at
reservoir temperature 75 ◦C and ambient pressure were performed. Nanofluids have been
conducted with diluted seawater base in interfacial tension studies. At 4 stages of 5, 10, 15, and
20, the seawater has been diluted. TiO2 nanoparticles with 250, 500 and 1000 ppm concentrations
in 10, 20 and 30 nm particle sizes have been spread for each sample of diluted seawater. Results
of 36 experiments were reported of interfacial tension in this respect. A drop of the liquid was
formed at the end of the stainless steel needle into the bulk phase. Then, a 2-megapixel CCD HD
camera used to take an image of the drop, after getting the image software used to calculate the

33
IFT. Interfacial tension can be calculated by evaluating the droplet geometry and the difference in
phase density. Hansen and Rødsrud (1991) define complete derivation of the equations as shown
in the following equation:

∆ ρ g R20
γ= - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (16)
β

Where, ∆ρ is the difference of mass density between the drop and the medium around, is the
gravitational constant, R0 is the radius of the droplet, β is the shape factor.

Figure 12: Schematic diagram of IFT measurement. (a) High pressure HP and high temperature HT
pendant drop IFT400 apparatus, and (b) crude oil droplet (Ali et al., 2020).

3.4. Contact Angle Measurement

Sessile drop method was used in this work to determine the contact angles between crude
oil drops and nanofluid in different concentrations on the surface of the carbonate rock. For this
purpose, according to Ali et al., (2019) from the carbonate rock sample, slim plates of about 2
mm are trimmed and polished to become completely smooth, then the prepared thin sections are
purified by toluene as well as distilled water to eliminate any surface contamination. Alvarez-
Berrios et al., (2018) aged carbonate slim plates for 3 days in crude oil at 70 °C. Then, thin
samples were taken out from the crude oil and put in an oven until they were dried. The aged

34
carbonate core sections were immersed into different concentrations of nanofluid for 2 days in a
container at 75 °C and ambient pressure. After that, a curved syringe needle was then injected
into an oil drop onto the carbonate plate. Then, a camera took photos of oil droplets. The contact
angles can be determined using the appropriate software from the photographs of the oil droplets.
Fig. 13 Shows the scheme of the process

Figure 13: Schematic illustration of the sessile drop method for contact angle measurements (Ali et al.,
2019, p. 10).

3.5. Core Preparation

Before the carbonate cores sample saturated with crude oil, a 5 μm membrane was used to
filter crude oil to remove impurities. The core was dried for one day in an oven at 75 °C and then
cooled down for 30 minutes in a dryer. The cores were then balanced and the initial weights
recorded which was 198.918 gr. Using a vacuum pressure saturating device, oil saturation was
established. First, the cores in the vacuum pressure tank were vacuumed for 10 h and then, the oil
with density of 0.904 gr/cc was inhaled into the vacuum pressure tank after being vacuumed for
35 minutes by another vacuum pump. A hand pump applied 25 MPa pressure into the tank and
the core was saturated continuously for 12 hours. The saturate core weight became 205.117 gr.
The cores were finally removed and the excess oil was cleaned and the OOIP was 6.85 cc.

35
3.6. Imbibition Test

Spontaneous imbibition tests were performed in Amott cell using a method of measuring
the volume of oil directly through the scale of the glass tube to calculate the oil recovery.
Different concentrations of nanofluids were used with presence of the ultrasonic waves. All
imbibition tests were conducted at temperature of 75 ℃. The cores were vertically positioned in
the Amott cells and immersed in several nanofluid concentrations. Then, the cell placed in the
ultrasonic bath filled with water around the cell below its neck. In order to calculate the rate of
imbibition and imbibition recoveries of several systems the crude oil volume displaced by the
spontaneous imbibition was obtained from the scale of the tube on the device every 24 hr. To
perform ultrasonic experiments, such cells are put in a bath filled with water around the cell
below its neck.

Figure 14: Schematic diagram of ultrasonic imbibition test.

3.7. Nanoparticles Adsorption on Carbonate Rock

The spectrophotometric test was used to calculate TiO 2 NPs adsorption with sizes of 10,
20 and 30 nm at temperature of 75 °C. For this reason, the maximum nanoparticle adsorption

36
wavelength was measured, where the nanofluid concentrations is correlated with light absorption.
Then, The maximum absorbance obtained for the respective NPs concentration, at maximum
wavelength the calibration chart was drown with respect of the absorption rate and the NPs
concentration. After all of this, 8 gr of grinded rock samples (adsorbent) were dispersed in 40 ml
of each NF (adsorbate) at 70 °C and nanofluids have been tested by spectroscopy adsorption at
different times. Finally, the amount of NPs absorption calculated from the following equation:

V (Ci −Ce )
q= ------------------------------------------------------
m
(17)

Where, Ci and Ce are the initial and final equilibrium concentration of the fluid released from the
rock (mg/L), respectively. V is the volume of the fluid (L), and m the mass of the grinded rock
(g).

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Characterization of Fe3O4@quartz Nanocomposite

XRD, FTIR and SEM analyzes were performed to detect prepared NC. The XRD pattern
on of Fe3O4@quartz NC shows the main summits correlated with the crystalline planes of pure
Fe3O4 and pure phases of NPs deposited on the quartz surface Fig. 15. The peaks that are marked
with green triangles represent the quartz component and peaks that are marked with blue stars
represent the Fe3O4 component.

37
 Figure 15: XRD pattern of prepared Fe3O4@quartz NC.

The FTIR spectra of prepared Fe3O4@quartz NC are shown in Fig. 16. The peaks at
3650, 3200 cm−1 match to O–H stretching mode and the peaks at 469 cm-1 to 639 cm-1 are match
to Fe–O stretching mode as well as the peaks at 1050 ÷ 1250 cm−1 match to Fe–O–Si

.
Figure 16: FTIR spectra of Fe3O4@quartz NC.

38
 To investigate about the size, shape and morphology of the prepared NC, SEM was
carried out as shown in Fig. 17. The SEM images shows that the shape of the NC is spherical
with size ranging between 14.19 nm and 41.74 nm, and spherical morphology.

a b

Figure 17: SEM micrographs of Fe3O4@quartz NC at (a) μm and 50 kx and (b) 200 nm and 200 kx
magnification.

4.2. Characterization of Nanofluids

The PH and conductivity characteristics of nanofluid are represented in Fig. 18.

According to Hu et al., (2017) colloidal solution PH greatly affects particle aggregation and the
stability of suspension. As represented in Fig. 18a the increasing in PH values of the nanofluid
from 6.7 to 6.99 after adding 1000 ppm of the NC, this is a good indication of stable consistency
between the nanofluids. In the meantime, conductivity measurements of the nanofluid are
represented in Fig. 18b. As NC concentration increased the conductivity of the nanofluid is
increased. The conductivity of 20.6 and 55.8 is measured after adding 250 and 1000 ppm of the
Fe3O4@quartz NC, respectively. But the change of conductivity was less significant in changing
the concentration of the NC from 500 to 750 ppm.

39
 7.05
7.00
6.95
6.90
6.85
6.80

PH
6.75
6.70
6.65
6.60
6.55
0 250 500 750 1000
NCs conc. [ppm]

60
Conductivity [μS/cm]

50

40

30

20

10
0 250 500 750 1000
NCs conc. [ppm]

Figure 18: Characteristics of prepared nanofluids with 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm nanocomposite
concentrations. (a) PH and (b) conductivity.

4.3. IFT Reduction

The follow up results in Table 6 which shows the IFT results in absence of TiO 2 NPs and
Table 7 which shows the IFT results in presence of TiO 2 NPs, prove that the more concentration
of nanofluid, the less the IFT will be. As it is shown, with the NP concentration of 250 ppm and
30 nm of NP size the IFT is 22.915 mN/m. But with the concentration of 1000 ppm the IFT
appears to be 12.981 mN/m at the same conditions. As much as the concentration is increased the
effect of NPs turns to be more effective on decreasing interfacial tension.

40
The concentration of nanofluid at a constant salinity of the seawater (e.g. 30 times diluted
seawater and 250 ppm of TiO2 nanoparticle), and also changing the NPs size from 10 to 20 and
30 nm increases the IFT from 20.954 to 22.737and 22.915 mN/m, respectively. The results are
showing that there is possibly a relation between the concentration of the NPs and the constancy
of the seawater salinity, which is; the smaller the NPs sizes, the more effective the NPs is, which
tends to decrease the IFT more than a large particle-sized fluid.

Table 6: IFT of seawater diluted samples in absence of TiO2 NPs at 75 °C and atmospheric pressure.

Seawater dilution
0 5 10 15 20
times

IFT [mN/m] 27.671 25.384 24.934 18.642 17.189

Table 7: IFT results of different sizes and concentrations of TiO2 nanofluids at different salinities of
seawater at 75 °C and atmospheric pressure.

    IFT [mN/m]    
NP size
[nm]

  10 20 30

5 20.954 22.737 22.915 250

10 19.362 20.018 21.496  
15 17.215 17.139 17.544  
20 16.322 16.776 16.792  
NP concentrations [ppm]
Seawater dilution times

   
5 14.687 15.16 15.971 500
10 14.157 14.864 15.063  
15 13.713 14.005 14.397  
20 13.65 13.702 14.227  
   
5 10.019 12.554 12.981 1000
10 8.246 10.317 11.42  
15 6.94 7.628 9.439  
20 6.573 7.023 7.851  

41
4.4. Contact Angle

The follow up results in Table 8 which shows the CA results in absence of TiO 2 NPs and
Table 9 which shows the CA results in presence of TiO 2 NPs. According to the data the smallest
CA is due to the nanofluid with concentration of 1000 ppm with TiO2 NPs size of 10 nm and 20
times diluted seawater which is 21.36°. This range lies in strong hydrophilic which is particularly
effective for EOR processes. At least two mechanisms that would include NPs and the variety of
dissolved ions in marine waters are available at this stage. CA alteration can be optimized versus
TiO2 NPs size and nanofluid salinity as well as concentration. The effects of NPs are obvious on
contact angle too. As shown in Table 9, as much as there is a higher concentration of NPs, the
contact angle becomes less and improves the EOR. The ability to decrease the CA of the
nanofluids that is been utilized appears to be more effective than their performance in IFT
reduction. In a constant NPs size and salinity, CA quantities show a higher decrease. For
instance, for a Nano-fluid with 15 times dilution of seawater base and 10 nm NPs dispersed, the
CA quantities for concentrations of 250, 500 and 1000 ppm are 38.6°, 27.41° and 22.76°,
respectively.

Table 8: Contact angle of seawater diluted samples in absence of TiO 2 NPs at 75 °C and atmospheric
pressure.

Seawater dilution
0 5 10 15 20
times

CA [Degree] 73.45 65.14 58.86 48.7 46.93

42
 Table 9: Contact angle results of different sizes and concentrations of TiO 2 nanofluids at different
salinities of seawater at 75 °C and atmospheric pressure.

    CA [Degree]    

NP size
[nm]
  10 20 30

5 43.5 55.74 56.94 250

10 38.79 46.85 51.47  
15 38.6 44.52 45.1  
20 35.24 37.16 41.38  

NP concentrations [ppm]
seawater dilution times

   
5 37.17 42.69 43.56 500
10 30.55 34.89 36.2  
15 27.41 29.05 33.92  
20 22.38 26.63 28.79  
   
5 34.85 39.52 41.6 1000
10 29.34 33.47 35.71  
15 22.76 25.9 32.56  
20 21.36 25.66 26.84  

4.5. Imbibition Test

The above mentioned nanofluid and ultrasonic wave implemented for further verification
of changes in wettability of carbonate rocks by imbibition test. The test with carbonate rock plug
with properties described in Table 10 has been performed in this study. The oil production
volume versus time which recorded in every 24 hr at 75 ℃ and ambient pressure is represented in
Fig. 19. The test was performed with NF250 which has the optimum interfacial tension of 14.12
mN/m. A clear improvement of oil recovery was observed day after day until day 26. In day 26
to 28 the production was constant at 3.9 cc. Total produced volume of oil was 3.9 cc which
means the recovery factor is 57 %. One of the reasons may be due to vibrating air bubbles
trapped in pores. As Hamida and Babadagli (2005) mentioned, due to the broad difference in
understandability and viscosity of gas and liquid, bubbles seriously affect the acoustic properties

43
 of liquids. Additionally, decreasing interfacial tension and contact angle affect the imbibition, but
Hamida and Babadagli (2005) observed that ultrasonic waves have not effects on contact angle.
OOIP fluidImbibition

NF250

4.6. Nanoparticles Adsorption on Carbonate Rock

The adsorption amount per unit mass of TiO2 NPs for carbonate rock
[cm3]

in concentrations and sizes of 250 and 1000 ppm, and 10 and 30 nm,
6.85

respectively, in temperature of 75 °C by UV spectroscopy method is shown

[%]
Soi

42.54

in Fig. 20. NPs in size of 30 nm are less absorbed than NPs in size of 10 nm.
The NPs adsorbed at the surface of the carbonate rock is known as
mass from oil [g]
Plug saturated

equilibrium amount of adsorption after 72 hr, which is equal to 9.37 and 11.4
mg/gr for NPs in size of 10 nm and concentration of 250 and 1000 ppm,
191.4784

respectively, and equal to 8.93 and 11.61 mg/gr for NPs in size of 30 nm and
concentration of 250 and 1000 ppm, respectively. The process of absorption
on rock surfaces is associated with the propensity of structural disjoint
Mass of dry
sample [g]

pressure of NPs and nanofilm on the surface (Mcelfresh et al., 2012). The
182.3524

increase of the adsorption ratio with concentration and size can be

describable by the increase of the specific surface area of NPs at higher
Table 10: Nanofluid and plugconcentrations
properties usedand smaller sizes,
for imbibition test. because of the higher frequency.
Total VP
[cm3]

Figure 20: TiO2 nanoparticles adsorption on carbonate rock surface with time.
16.1
[cm]
L

Figure 19: recovery data versus time for the nanofluid.

Conclusion
[%]
Por.

20.18

Enhancing the oil recovery requires working on some reservoir and

Perm.
[md]

fluid properties such as contact angle, interfacial tension and spontaneous

10.71

imbibition to provide improvements. After evaluating the tests, we conclude

44
that using different concentrations of nanofluids has a tremendous decrease in interfacial tension.
The IFT showed remarkable changes while using nanoparticles in a way if the concentration of
TiO2 nanoparticles was increased the IFT show a remarkable decrease. According to the data
from each test using different concentrations of nanoparticles, we can state that the more the
concentration of nanofluid, the more the IFT decreases.

Recovery percent by way of Fe3O4@quartz nanofluids and ultrasonic wave imbibition

became recorded and the received outcomes are associated with IFT results and contact
perspective but searching at the better overall performance of the nanofluids in decreasing the
contact perspective and consequently higher wettability as nicely as greater relation of imbibition
to wettability, it can be cited that wettability is the control mechanism. Imbibition test does no
longer has the ability to analyze the viscous forces and some of the nanofluids mechanisms
consisting of pore channel plugging and it have far proposed to increase this research with
flooding to take a look at to extend them to higher concentrations. Because of clouding the water
base fluid and mistakes of the IFT400 for research of the drop, there was a restriction for our test
at this condition and it may be proposed to bear in mind other techniques for the dimension of the
IFT at higher concentrations.

TiO2 nanofluids have proven a good ability in lowering the contact angle that means
alteration of wettability from oilophilic to hydrophilic and it can almost be state that intense
hydrophilic is a consequent of getting older the carbonate cross sections. Results show that the
contact angle lowering has a direct dating with nanoparticles sizes and salinity degrees and
reverse dating with nanoparticles concentrations.

The temperature and strain have been assumed to be constant to investigate the opposite
parameters of the studies. Parameters consisting of IFT and contact angle show excessive
dependency to pressure and tempereature in EOR. It is proposed to increase the measurements to
specific pressures and temperatures.

45
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