Application of Electromagnetic Waves and Zinc Oxide & Aluminum Oxide as Dielectric Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery

Recovering oil from reservoirs with high temperature and high pressure is impractical by using the existing methods. Therefore, injection of dielectric nanofluid activated by low frequency electromagnetic (EM) wave has been proposed to improve recovery efficiency of an oil reservoir. When subjected to an alternating electric field, change in the viscosity of the nanofluid gives better sweep efficiency during the core displacement tests. Dielectric nanoparticles namely ZnO and Al2O3 were synthesized using sol-gel method. Microstructural characterization confirmed that both nanoparticles have high purity and crystallinity; with average particle size of 38 nm and 45 nm for Al2O3 and ZnO, respectively. Displacement tests were conducted using packed silica beads to evaluate recovery efficiency of the nanofluid in comparison to the conventional surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Dielectric properties of the nanofluids e.g. relative permittivity, dielectric loss and loss tangent were characterized in a frequency range of 102 to 106 Hz. At frequency 102 Hz, Al2O3 nanofluid has 45.3% higher dielectric losses than ZnO, which inferred the existence of higher surface charges bounded for occurrence of greater interfacial polarization. Furthermore, the electro rheological properties of the nanofluids were also studied by varying the presence of electromagnetic wave during the displacement tests. In the absence of EM irradiation,