Experimental Assessment of Guar Gum and Aluminum Oxide Nanoparticle Hybrid for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are important for increasing oil production as to meet global demands. Polymer flooding is a commonly used EOR method, but it has issue with retention and vulnerability to degradation both at higher temperature and salinity. Nanoparticles can, therefore, be mixed with polymers to increase its recovery potential. The study compares the effect of standalone guar gum polymer solution, guar gum/Aluminum oxide hybrid and aluminum oxide nanofluid on viscosity, salinity range of 30, 000ppm and 60,000 ppm, permeability changes and oil recovery. The efficiency of the formulated fluids were tested using twelve different encapsulated plug samples. The results indicate that polymer-nanoparticle hybrid solution enhanced the viscosity, give better permeability change and higher oil recovery for both 30,000ppm and 60,000ppm salinity change. Furthermore, guar gum and aluminum oxide nanofluid hybrid exhibited non-Newtonian shear-thinning behavior maintaining stable gel strength, consistent viscosity and higher pH over time. 0.5wt% guar gum/ 0.3wt% Al2O3 hybrid gave the highest cumulative oil recovery of 83.04% for 30,000ppm brine concentration as to compare to the stand-alone guar gum and aluminum oxide nanoparticle that gave the cumulative oil recovery of 78% and 73.91% respectively at the same weight and salinity concentration. 0.3wt% guar gum/0.5wt% Al2O3 hybrid at 30,000ppm brine concentration gave lower permeability change of 53.04mD than every other stand-alone fluid concentration investigated. The combination of aluminum oxide nanoparticle and guar gum polymer enhances polymer rheological properties as to improve displacement efficiency, reduces polymer adsorption and permeability damage.