Speaker
Description
CO2-EOR alternatives for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) are key to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 to limit global warming. Currently, significant efforts are being made to develop safe alternatives for carbon capture and storage, coupled with traditional enhanced oil recovery processes in the Oil and Gas industry. Thus, under these scenarios, there is an imminent opportunity to improve CCS/CCUS processes, where nanotechnology, as an emerging technology, can provide particular conditions that allow optimization of process performance. Nanotechnology developments in recent decades have demonstrated exceptional advantages in the Oil&Gas industry. In particular, carbon quantum dots have recently gained great importance owing to their functionality as inter-well tracers; however, the carbonaceous composition of CQDs could also allow certain interactions with molecules such as CO2, which have not been thoroughly studied. Therefore, this study aims to develop and evaluate carbon quantum dots for interaction with CO2 and reservoir fluids to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) and increase CO2 solubility in reservoir fluids. This study included nanomaterials synthesized from agro-waste sources such as coffee mucilage and sugar cane molases to promote technical-economic feasibility framed in a circular economy to reduce costs and maximize the use of available resources. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the addition of CQDs to brine and CO2 streams, assessed by fluid-fluid interactions measured by interfacial tension (IFT), adsorption, and solubility tests, to determine the contribution and phenomenology involved in the interaction of CQDs with reservoir fluids. The synthesized CQDs were characterized by their hydrodynamic size, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and absorbance tests. A high-pressure device manufactured by Biolin Scientific was used to measure the IFT using the pendant drop method. The IFT measurements were performed from 1 to 12 Mpa at 25 and 40°C. The effect of the presence of CQDs on–CO2-Brine solubility and dosage was evaluated in a batch setup at pressures between 1 and 6 MPa. The results showed that carbonaceous nanomaterials increased CO2 solubility owing to the presence of nitrogen groups, which promoted acid-base interactions between CQDs and CO2 molecules, contributing to a higher retention of CO2 trapped in the aqueous phase. Thus, CO2 solubility increased to 28% at dosages of 0.01wt%. In addition, an IFT reduction of approximately 25% between the CO2 streams and the aqueous phase was obtained, which could lead to higher oil recovery and carbon geostorage. The major contribution of this study is the development of “Taylor-made” nanomaterials to enhance the interaction conditions between CO2 and reservoir fluids to promote both higher recovery of oil and underground carbon storage.
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