The Flow of Foam Through Short Porous Media And Apparent Viscosity Measurements
Authors: Marsden S.S. , Khan Suhail A. 
Published: December 2007

Externally generated foam was injected continuously into short porous media. Both flow rate and pressure drop were measured. Liquid saturation was determined by electrical conductivity. Foam quality G, expressed as the ratio of gas volume to total volume, was varied from 0.70 to 0.96.

As measured with a modified Fann VG Meter, apparent viscosity of this foam µa decreases with increasing shear rate but usually falls within the range of 50 to 500 cp. At a given shear rate, µa increases almost linearly with G. When measured with a Bendix Ultraviscoson, kinematic µa is independent of r but absolute µa increases with r from about 3 to 8 cp.

The effective permeability-apparent viscosity ratio ke/µa decreases almost linearly with G for porous media of high permeability, but the rate of decrease becomes less for tighter ones. The relative permeability-apparent viscosity ratio kr/µa vs G data does not fall on a single line. The kr/µa ratio increases with liquid saturation in the porous medium and with surfactant concentration. Estimates of µa for foam in porous media vary from 30 to 100 cp.

INTRODUCTION

Although research on the development of a foam-drive, oil recovery process has been going on for almost a decade, most of the significant publications have appeared within the last several years. This illustrates well the rate at which interest in this process is accelerating. Bond and Holbrook1 were the first to describe the use of foam to improve oil recovery in their patent of 1958. They proposed that an aqueous foaming agent slug be injected into the formation and that this be followed by gas to produce a foam in situ. Fried2 studied the injection of foam into porous media which has already been subjected to conventional gas or water drives and found that gas could be used to drive a foam bank which would, in turn, displace additional oil in the form of an oil bank. He attributed the increased oil recovery to the high effective viscosity of foam flowing in porous media. His microscopic observations showed the importance of foam generation and regeneration within the porous medium.

By injecting both air and aqueous surfactant solution, Bernard3 generated foams within the porous medium in which oil displacement was being studied. In a separate empirical test, he also measured the dynamic foaming characteristics of the same surfactants in water and/or oil. With some exceptions and for the seven surfactants studied, there seems to be a qualitative relationship between the efficiency of liquid displacement and the dynamic foaming test used. This relationship was not consistent enough to eliminate the necessity of actual foam flood tests in porous media for surfactant selection.

In a study basic to gas storage in aquifers, Bennett4 described the displacement of brine by foam in consolidated porous media. Among other things, he stated that the ability of a surfactant solution to foam is more important than the stability of its foam. The presence of a foam bank between the displacing air and the displaced brine improved both breakthrough and ultimate recovery. In a continuation of this work Kolb5 attributed the great reduction in surfactant solution production rate as displacement by air progressed to a decrease in relative permeability to gas. These several effects reported by both Bennett and Kolb can all be attributed to the high apparent viscosity of foam which was obviously flowing in the porous media.