Determination of Minimum Miscibility Pressure of CO<sub>2</sub>–Oil System: A Molecular Dynamics Study

CO<sub>2</sub> enhanced oil recovery (CO<sub>2</sub>-EOR) has become significantly crucial to the petroleum industry, in particular, CO<sub>2</sub> miscible flooding can greatly improve the efficiency of EOR. Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is a vital factor af...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ding Li, Shuixiang Xie, Xiangliang Li, Yinghua Zhang, Heng Zhang, Shiling Yuan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
Series:Molecules
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/16/4983
Description
Summary:CO<sub>2</sub> enhanced oil recovery (CO<sub>2</sub>-EOR) has become significantly crucial to the petroleum industry, in particular, CO<sub>2</sub> miscible flooding can greatly improve the efficiency of EOR. Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is a vital factor affecting CO<sub>2</sub> flooding, which determines the yield and economic benefit of oil recovery. Therefore, it is important to predict this property for a successful field development plan. In this study, a novel model based on molecular dynamics to determine MMP was developed. The model characterized a miscible state by calculating the ratio of CO<sub>2</sub> and crude oil atoms that pass through the initial interface. The whole process was not affected by other external objective factors. We compared our model with several famous empirical correlations, and obtained satisfactory results—the relative errors were 8.53% and 13.71% for the two equations derived from our model. Furthermore, we found the MMPs predicted by different reference materials (i.e., CO<sub>2</sub>/crude oil) were approximately linear (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.955). We also confirmed the linear relationship between MMP and reservoir temperature (T<sub>R</sub>). The correlation coefficient was about 0.15 MPa/K in the present study.
ISSN:1420-3049