Experimental Investigation of Thermal Marangoni Effect on Bypassed Oil Recovery

In this paper, the effect of interfacial tension (IFT) gradient caused by the temperature changes (Benard-Marangoni phenomenon), as a novel EOR method has been investigated. For a proper understanding and visualizing the mechanism, glass micromodels were used. Carbon dioxide and methane were injected separately to n-decane saturated micromodel. Gas injection experiments were conducted in different conditions and the impact of temperature and pressure have been investigated. Cold gas injection was compared with isotherm gas injection as the zero level of Marangoni flow. The impact of Marangoni flow has been compared with other active production mechanisms. Presented results revealed that the IFT gradient due to change in temperature at the interface of the oil and gas, induces a conductive flow that improves oil recovery and compensates the negative effects of other mechanisms by overcoming the capillary forces. The results show the significant impact of thermal Marangoni convection on the recovery of bypassed oil and introduced Benard-Marangoni convection as an important mechanism of bypassed oil recovery especially in low pressure reservoirs.