| dc.description.abstract | Scale formation is an ongoing production issue in the oil and gas industry where inorganic salts can form deposits downhole or in production facilities. These deposits can severely hinder production and lead to significant lost revenue and remediation costs. Scale inhibitors are compounds which prevent the production of insoluble deposits, and their efficacy can be measured by their brine compatibility, minimum inhibition concentration (MIC), and retention in rock. This project details the development of a novel cross-linked scale inhibitor (i.e. nanoized scale inhibitor or NSI) with the following characteristics: high brine compatibility, effective release profile, and high retention in porous media. Experimental analysis of polymeric nanoized scale inhibitor (NSI) yielded effective release of durations up to 40 days, a low MIC of ~3 ppm under static conditions, and 15-55% retention of NSI in quartz sandpack experiments after 6 PV of brine throughput. The NSI retention results proved to be much higher than the linear polymer scale inhibitor retention of ~3% after 6 PV of throughput. Initial retention values showed to be highly dependent on the concentration of SI injected into the sandpack, and retention versus throughput proved to be largely dependent on particle size. QCM-D experiments were performed on the NSI and linear scale inhibitor samples to investigate adsorption via electrostatic particle interactions. Experimental results suggested that the NSI system interacts primarily with positive surface charge, and further suggested that retention in a quartz sandpack is largely due to mechanical lodging of NSI in pore space. | |
