Microfluidic Investigation of Foam Coarsening Dynamics in Porous Media at High-Pressure and High-Temperature Conditions

Coarsening or Oswald ripening, induced by interbubble gas diffusion, is considered to dominate foam structure evolution in porous media. We present the first study of trapped foam coarsening dynamics under realistic deep reservoir conditions (up to 3200 psi/22 MPa of pore pressure and 100 °C of temperature) in a high-pressure and high-temperature microfluidic system. The findings are expected to help predict foam structure evolution in applications such as enhanced oil recovery and CO2 geological sequestration. It is shown that, in porous media, larger bubbles grow at the expense of smaller bubbles. The growth rate of the average bubble area (〈a〉) over time shows a long-term linear increase when 〈a〉is between 1/5 and 1/2 of the average pore size. The foam coarsening kinetics are determined by the liquid film permeability, gas-liquid interfacial tension, and the molar volume of the dispersed phase. In summary, foams prepared with less water-soluble gases (e.g., N2 and air) and lower foam quality show slower coarsening kinetics due to a lower film permeability. Foam coarsening is more sensitive to surfactant concentration (than surfactant type), as it determines the interfacial tension that controls the mass transfer driving force (capillary pressure difference). The transport properties of the dispersed phase depend strongly on its density, which increases with increasing pore pressure and decreasing temperature. At the same experimental conditions, gas CO2 foam shows a 10-fold faster coarsening rate than N2 foam. However, dense (i.e., liquid and supercritical) CO2 foams show a remarkable 20-500-fold reduction in coarsening kinetics compared with gas N2 and CO2 foams due to the significantly reduced mass transfer driving forces. In a sense, trapped CO2 foam can be stronger than N2 foam at high-pressure and high-temperature conditions.