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Gels
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Gels in the Oil Field
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Gels in the Oil Field

A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Chemistry and Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2025 | Viewed by 2639

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Lei Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: EOR; polymer gel; oilfield chemistry; CCUS

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As functional materials, gels play an important role in promoting the efficient exploitation of oil fields, in processes such as gel plugging during drilling to prevent the loss of drilling fluid, the improvement of the effects of acidizing and fracturing, conformance control and water plugging, enhanced oil recovery using gels during oil production, and the improvement of the treatment effect using gels during oil and water treatment and separation. There are also important research efforts and applications in the CCUS field. With the developments achieved in recent years, gel technologies have become increasingly mature, making gels important products in oil field chemistry. These technologies include the research and development of new gels and the evaluation of gel properties and applications in the traditional oil and gas field, the new energy field, and the CCUS field. Therefore, this Special Issue is dedicated to reporting gel research and applications in the oil and related fields, providing practitioners with a more comprehensive research report and promoting the development of gel technology.

Dr. Lei Zhang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • gel
  • oil field
  • exploration and development
  • CCUS
  • functional materials

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2801 KiB  
Article
Development and Performance Evaluation of a New Conformance Control Agent Gel
by Bin Ma, He Wang, Shu Jiang, Mengyu Chen and Lei Zhang
Gels 2024, 10(10), 618; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels10100618 - 26 Sep 2024
Viewed by 506
Abstract
How to effectively plug the multi-scale fractured water channeling has always been the key to achieving efficient water flooding of fractured low-permeability oil reservoirs. In this paper, a new type of supramolecular–polymer composite gel is developed, which is suitable for plugging multi-scale fractured [...] Read more.
How to effectively plug the multi-scale fractured water channeling has always been the key to achieving efficient water flooding of fractured low-permeability oil reservoirs. In this paper, a new type of supramolecular–polymer composite gel is developed, which is suitable for plugging multi-scale fractured water channeling. The supramolecular–polymer composite gel is composed of a polymer (such as polyacrylamide), cross-linking agent (such as polyethyleneimine), supramolecular gel factor (such as cyclodextrin) and polarity regulator (such as ethyl alcohol). The mass fraction of polyacrylamide, polyethyleneimine, cyclodextrin and ethyl alcohol are 0.15%, 0.2%, 1% and 0.2%, respectively. At the initial state, the viscosity of the composite gelant system is less than 20 mPa·s. It has good injection performance in micro-scale fractures and can enter the deep part of a fractured reservoir. At 40 °C, the composite gelant system can form a gel with a double network structure after gelation. One of the networks is formed by the covalent interaction between polyacrylamide and polyethyleneimine, the other network is formed by the self-assembly of cyclodextrins under the action of the ethyl alcohol. The comprehensive performance of the composite gel is greatly improved. The strength of the composite gel is >5 × 104 mPa·s, and it has good plugging strength in large-scale fractures. The composite gel can be used as a conformance control agent for fractured low-permeability oilfields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gels in the Oil Field)
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19 pages, 7605 KiB  
Article
Self-Degradable Rubber Plug for Temporary Plugging and Its Degradation Mechanism
by Fan Yang, Fan Li, Renjing Ji, Xiaorong Yu, Huan Yang and Gaoshen Su
Gels 2024, 10(10), 615; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels10100615 - 25 Sep 2024
Viewed by 707
Abstract
A self-degradable rubber plug (SDRP) was developed to address issues in existing crosslinked polymer temporary plugging technology, such as poor self-degradation properties. The synthesis formula was optimized using response surface analysis, resulting in an optimized composition of the SDRP: 13 wt% monomer, 0.02 [...] Read more.
A self-degradable rubber plug (SDRP) was developed to address issues in existing crosslinked polymer temporary plugging technology, such as poor self-degradation properties. The synthesis formula was optimized using response surface analysis, resulting in an optimized composition of the SDRP: 13 wt% monomer, 0.02 wt% initiator, 0.7 wt% crosslinker, and 1.8 wt% degradation catalyst. Under the condition of 70–120 °C, the SDRP was transformed from a liquid to a solid gel in 30–110 min; the degradation time was 3–10 days, and the viscosity of the completely degraded solution was lower than 20 mPa·s. At an injection volume of 1 PV SDPR, a breakthrough pressure of 8.34 MPa was achieved. The hydrolysis of the unstable crosslinker was found to have caused the breakage of the SDRP. Over time, the functional groups within the unstable crosslinker underwent hydrolysis due to the combined effects of temperature and the degradation catalyst. This process led to the disruption of crosslinking points, resulting in a gradual deterioration of the network structure. As a consequence, some immobile water was converted into free water. The mobility of water molecules increased until the plug was completely degraded into a viscous liquid. This study enriches the temporary plugging gel system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gels in the Oil Field)
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15 pages, 4466 KiB  
Article
Degradable Gel for Temporary Plugging in High Temperature Reservoir and Its Properties
by Fan Yang, Jinhua Liu, Renjing Ji, Xiaorong Yu, Huan Yang and Gaoshen Su
Gels 2024, 10(7), 445; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels10070445 - 5 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1012
Abstract
Although various degradable gel materials have been developed for temporary plugging in oil fields, they often degrade too quickly in high-temperature environments. To address this issue, an unstable crosslinker was synthesized to prepare a high-temperature degradable gel. This gel does not degrade excessively [...] Read more.
Although various degradable gel materials have been developed for temporary plugging in oil fields, they often degrade too quickly in high-temperature environments. To address this issue, an unstable crosslinker was synthesized to prepare a high-temperature degradable gel. This gel does not degrade excessively fast at high temperatures. Temperature and crosslinker concentration are the primary factors influencing gel degradation time, followed by monomer and initiator concentrations. Increased temperature and decreased crosslinker concentration both reduce degradation time, which can be adjusted within the range of 90–130 °C by varying the crosslinker concentration. The molecular structure and thermal stability of the degradable gel were analyzed using FTIR, 13C NMR, and TG. Furthermore, the viscoelastic properties, compressive performance, plugging performance, and core damage performance of the gel were evaluated. Within the test range of 0.1–1000 Pa, the storage modulus is higher than the loss modulus. The gel prepared at 130 °C exhibited a compressive stress of 0.25 MPa at 50% strain. The plugging pressure of the gel in sand-filled tubes with varying permeabilities (538.2–2794.1 mD) exceeded 15 MPa while maintaining a core damage rate below 5%. SEM analysis indicated that the degradation mechanism of the gel may involve the collapse of its three-dimensional network structure due to the hydrolysis of amide groups in the crosslinker. The viscosity of the degradation liquid was below 11 mPa·s, enabling it to be brought back to the surface with the formation fluid without the need for further breaking operations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gels in the Oil Field)
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