Volume 56

Impact of Pentanol on CO2-Oil MMP: A Molecular Dynamics Study for Enhanced Oil Recovery Jiayu Chen, Shuyang liu, Hangyu Li, Junrong Liu, Wenyue Sun

Abstract

It is important to improve CO2 miscible flooding efficiency by using additives for CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR). To bridge the gap, this study aims to investigate the effect of pentanol additives on the Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) of CO2-oil systems under reservoir conditions.
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were conducted in this work by using LAMMPS software to model the interactions between CO2, crude oil, and pentanol molecules under reservoir conditions. The force field parameters were carefully calibrated and validated against experimental data. The vanishing interface method was employed to determine the MMP by observing changes in the gas-liquid interface and assessing miscibility under different conditions. The impact of pentanol concentration (0-10 wt%) on MMP was thoroughly analyzed.
The simulation results reveal that pentanol significantly reduces the MMP of CO2-oil systems. The MMP decreases as the concentration of pentanol increases, reaching an optimal point before leveling off. In addition, CO2 molecules preferentially cluster around the hydroxyl groups of pentanol, enhancing their interaction with the oil phase and facilitating the disruption of oil molecular cohesion. This interaction effectively reduces the MMP, demonstrating pentanol’s potential as a powerful additive for CO2 miscible flooding.
The findings provide valuable insights for optimizing the processes of CO2 enhanced oil recovery and storage, offering a practical approach for achieving carbon neutrality through improved reservoir exploitation techniques.

Keywords Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP), CO2 Miscible Flooding, Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Pentanol, EOR