5 Polymer retention in porous media

5.1 Introduction

When polymers are added to displacement fluids, the objective is usually to

viscosify the injection brine using the properties of the transported polymer
as discussed in Chapter 3. However, there may be significant interactions
between the transported polymer molecules and the porous medium. Such
interactions will cause the polymer to be retained by the porous medium
and will lead to the formation of a bank of injection fluid wholly or partially
denuded of polymer. Clearly, this bank of fluid will have a viscosity which
is much lower than the injected polymer solution, and this will generally
lead to a reduction in the efficiency of the polymer flood. However, this
polymer retention on the porous medium may also cause some reduction of
the rock permeability, which can contribute to the oil recovery mechanism,
as is discussed further below. However, overall, the retention of polymer
tends to reduce oil recovery despite the permeability reduction contribution.
In fact, it is the author's observation that the level of polymer retention is one
of the key factors in determining the economic viability of a polymer flood.
Thus, it is of great importance to establish the correct retention levels for
a given proposed field polymer flood. The conditions under which such
laboratory measurements should be made are extremely important so that
relevant figures for retention are available for the simulation assessment of
the polymer flood. For example, the levels of polymer retention (and the
accompanying permeability reduction) will vary in rocks of different
permeability. If there is a certain amount of field core available, the 'most
appropriate' core material on which to carry out retention experiments must
be selected. Not all such experiments will be of equal value in assessing the
polymer flood, as is discussed in Chapter 8 when the effects of polymer
retention on oil recovery are quantified.
In this chapter, all mechanisms that remove polymer from the transported
aqueous phase are referred to collectively as 'retention'. A distinction will
be made between individual mechanisms-including polymer adsorption,
mechanical entrapment and hydrodynamic retention-in the course of this
chapter. It is noted that mechanical entrapment is a filtration-like mechanism
in which the larger polymer species are thought to be 'strained out' in the
smaller pores. Thus, because of the nature of filtration and the resulting pore
blocking that must occur, this is not a mechanism that can persist throughout
a reservoir formation. In a polymer solution, free from debris (from the

K. S. Sorbie, Polymer-Improved Oil Recovery

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1991
 POLYMER RETENTION IN POROUS MEDIA 127
manufacturing process) and microgel, mechanical entrapment may only
remove a small amount of very high molecular weight material. If the
entrapment process acts on polymer molecules down to about the average
size in the distribution, it will inevitably lead to a build-up of material close
to the injection well, which gives an approximately exponential penetration
profile into the formation. This will ultimately lead to pore blocking and
well plugging, which is, of course, totally unsatisfactory. A polymer that
demonstrates such properties should not be selected for a field polymer flood.
Thus, if the polymer solution exhibits very high levels of mechanical
entrapment, this polymer would not be chosen for field application. Turning
to the mechanism of hydrodynamic retention, this is generally thought to
give a small contribution to the total retained material. Therefore, considering
the above remarks on mechanical entrapment and hydrodynamic retention,
it is suggested that polymer adsorption is the key mechanism that is relevant
in well-dispersed polymer solutions (see comments in Chapter 3; Section 3.6).
If this is so, then, for field applications it is necessary to establish that a given
polymer solution (after filtration) shows only a small amount of entrapment
and that the retention levels are mainly the result of adsorption. This implies
that experiments must be carefully designed in order to do this correctly,
and this is discussed later in this chapter.
In this chapter, some of the basic ideas on polymer adsorption at a solid-
liquid interface are briefly discussed. The different types of polymer retention
mechanism within a porous medium as referred to above are then reviewed,
together with discussion of how these may be measured in the laboratory;
both static and dynamic adsorption are discussed in this context. Retention
of HPAM and xanthan are then considered and the levels observed and their
sensitivities to polymer, solution and porous medium properties are discussed.
The effect of polymer retention in reducing core permeability is also con-
sidered. Finally, some work on the effect of polymer adsorption on two-
phase relative permeability, which is of some relevance in the polymer
treatment of producer wells in order to control water production, is reviewed.
It should be noted here that this chapter concentrates primarily on the
retention mechanisms and the factors that affect retention levels. An extensive
analysis of the effects of dynamic retention on polymer effiuent profiles is
not presented here since this is covered in Chapter 7 along with other polymer
transport effects. Issues such as the effects of linear and non-linear isotherms
and equilibrium and non-equilibrium adsorption on polymer core effiuents
are also discussed in more detail in Chapter 7, in which the appropriate
polymer transport equations are developed.

5.2 Polymer retention levels-units

Irrespective of the particular mechanisms of polymer retention, the main

quantity of interest is 'how much' polymer is retained. However, this may