Water Seminar Summary

Speaker Introduction

• Kevin Wagner: Director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center
• Dr. P. Bikino: Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering, Harold Hon Chair in Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum Program Coordinator
• Focus on produced water research and treatment.

Key Statistics

• Average oil well in the U.S. produces 8 barrels of water per barrel of oil.
• Emphasis on beneficial uses of produced water beyond oil production.

Topics Covered

1. CO2 Sequestration

   • Importance: Major greenhouse gas impacting global warming.
   • Current Concentration: 421 PPM (up from 280 PPM in pre-industrial times).
   • Process: Capture CO2 from sources (e.g., power plants), purify, compress, and inject into subsurface formations.
   • Trapping Mechanisms:
     • Structural and stratigraphic trapping
     • Residual trapping due to capillary forces
     • Solubility trapping (focus of talk)
     • Mineral trapping (long-term stability)

2. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

   • Stages of oil recovery:
     • Primary Recovery: Natural pressure produces oil
     • Secondary Recovery: Water injection to repressurize and sweep remaining oil
     • Tertiary Recovery: Advanced methods to recover more oil (EOR).
   • Major challenges in secondary recovery leading to high residual oil left in wells.

3. Produced Water

   • Definition: Water produced alongside oil, often contains high salinity and contaminants.
   • U.S. generated approximately 26 billion barrels of produced water in 2021.
   • Research focus on treating and using produced water for EOR and CO2 sequestration.

Research Objectives

• Measure CO2 solubility in brines and hydrocarbons.
• Explore using carbonated produced water for EOR while sequestering CO2.

Research Methodology

1. Experimental Setup:
   • Saturating brine and hydrocarbons with CO2 under controlled pressure.
2. Measurements:
   • Swelling factor of hydrocarbons to determine CO2 solubility.
   • Developed a thermodynamic model to predict solubility based on experimental data.

Key Findings

• CO2 solubility increases with pressure and decreases with salinity in brines.
• CO2 solubility in hydrocarbons decreases as molecular weight increases.
• Presence of water reduces swelling factors of hydrocarbons at higher pressures.
• Strong correlation between produced water density and CO2 solubility.

Future Research Directions

• Conduct microfluidics experiments using high-salinity carbonated water for EOR.
• Implementation in field applications for CO2 sequestration and produced water management.

Questions and Discussion

• Discussed implications of CO2 on water alkalinity and hardness.
• Clarified discrepancies between experimental results for DI water and brines in solubility measurements.

Upcoming Seminars

• No seminar in March due to Spring Break.
• Next seminar: April 18th with Dr. Kieran Mangle from B Systems.