A Comparative Study of Dolomite Dissolution in Simple Organic Acids and Chelating Agents

Abstract

Acid treatments have predominantly been conducted using HCl for its availability, high rock dissolving power and soluble reaction products. At high temperatures, rapid spending of the acid with carbonates prevents deeper penetration distance into the formations. Alternative fluids such as acetic and formic acid have lent themselves to retarded reaction rates, low corrosivity and reduced tendency to form acid/oil sludge in asphaltene-rich crudes but for high reaction rate problems.

Chelating agents, with the added advantage of complexing with alkali-earth metals in carbonates to form water-soluble products that are thermally stable at high temperature, have been introduced as stimulation fluids. Glutamic acid diacetic acid (GLDA) ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and hydroxyethylenediaminetriacetic acid (HEDTA) are aminopolycarboxylic acids that were studied.

To predict the spending of chelating agents relative to simple organic acids at temperatures between 150 and 250˚F, the chemical kinetics of dolomite dissolution in these acid solutions were investigated over different reaction conditions in a rotating disk apparatus. Samples of the reacted acids from the reactor were collected and then analyzed with inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Analyses of the experimental data were carried out to determine kinetic parameters of the heterogeneous reactions needed for matrix stimulation of dolomitic reservoirs.

Experimental results indicated that dolomite dissolution rates increased in all the acid solutions as the disk rotational speeds increased at 150, 200, and 250˚F. The dissolution of dolomite in 0.886 M GLDA was found to be surface-reaction limited at lower temperatures and mass-transfer limited at highest temperature. GLDA with the lowest reaction rates and relative diffusion coefficient demonstrated retardation before spending with deeper penetration capability for productivity and injectivity improvement.