Report on Foam Injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Methods & Uses

This report provides an overview of foam injection techniques used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). It discusses the introduction of foams as colloidal suspensions for displacing earthly materials, particularly in oil industries for cleaning contaminated groundwater and gas clots. The report highl...Read More

FOAM INTRODUCTION
[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]

Introduction
Large packets of gas particles are always in a continuous random motion when disturbed.
When they are disseminated in a liquid, effervescence gathers forming colloidal suspensions
called foams. Suppose a wetting agent is applied, powerful foams are produced that are used in
the displacement method of earthly materials. Many oil industries use foams as Enhanced Oil
Recovery (EOR) process to clean-up a contaminated groundwater and gas clots (Lake, Johns,
Rossen & Pope, 2014). Foams have several uses. For instance, carbon dioxide foams are used in
removing of polluted underground materials. More importantly, insulated heated foam is
necessary in heat conduction of air. It is majorly produced using three processes; snapping-off,
leaving-behind and lamella separation (Sheng, 2013).
Foam injection method is a technique used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) for diverse
pool of least defective or cracked systems. The use of foam injection has provided a solution to
problems of gas injection.
Advantages of foam injection
1. Foam injection is economical when combined with other methods (like alkaline or
surfactant) of EOR as compared to old methods
2. It has led to increased discovery of Oil (Lake et al., 2014)
3. Foams are used to reduce gas movement and absorbency as well as increasing the
level of its stickiness.
4. Foam injection is very efficient as compared to inefficient Water-floods, Gas-
floods and Surfactant-floods

Previous research on foam injection
There has been experimental research of foam movement and generation and modelling of
simpler foam injection molding mechanism (Sheng, 2013). For instance, in May 2015 there was
a 7th International Conference on Porous Media & Annual Meeting. The research was based on
modelling of a foam injection on a medium that was porous where a foam injection was
contrasted to air-sparging method. The Dacy’s equations were very instrumental in the
calculation speed of foam in a medium that is porous. The experiment suggests that foam
injection was very effective and efficient as opposed to the conventional processes.
Zhong (2009) performed a study plan that was funded by the government of the United States, a
study that concentrated on the creation of a technological methods as well as a way of
transporting it. The study as well included a research on the pressure of form injection in which
he established that the pressure of foam injection is influenced by its quality and permeability.
Experimental and numerical work
An experiment conducted using Edward’s limestone block obtained next to Garden City (Texas)
measuring 6 by 12 by12 had pores and porous-interparticle. A sample of this block was cut and
subjected to eighty degree of temperature and afterward coated with epoxy-resin. It was then put
to saturation using brine. A tabulated result was obtained to help work out permeable-matrix.
Absorbable solutions were used with 3-tests carried out in brine and foam after using two
methods of foam injection (Sheng, 2013).
Following the experiment on foam flooding and foam modeling, foam quality is of great
importance. This therefore resulted to empirical method which is widely used as compared to
other two semi-empirical and mechanistic which are not popularly used (Sheng, 2013).

References
Hwang, S. S., Hsu, P. P., Yeh, J. M., Chang, K. C., & Lai, Y. Z. (2009). The mechanical/thermal
properties of microcellular injection‐molded poly‐lactic‐acid nanocomposites. Polymer
Composites, 30(11), 1625-1630
Lake, L. W., Johns, R. T., Rossen, W. R., & Pope, G. A. (2014). Fundamentals of enhanced oil
recovery
Sheng, J. (Ed.). (2013). Enhanced oil recovery field case studies. Gulf Professional Publishing