Investigating the CO₂ injection and the performance of nanoparticles in preventing formation damage at different pressures and concentrations

Asphaltene deposition is one of the main challenges during CO₂ injection (miscible or immiscible) into reservoirs. Asphaltene deposition reduces the porosity and permeability of reservoir rock and changes its wettability to strongly oil-wet. In this article, to control the asphaltene deposition during CO₂ injection the use of direct asphaltene inhibitors (Al₂O₃ and Fe₃O₄) in reservoir conditions. In this research, nanoparticle screening (to investigate its significance in reducing asphaltene precipitation) has been done and it can be stated that Al₂O₃ nanoparticle will perform better effectivity than Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle. After that, by using effective nanoparticles (Al₂O₃) in different concentrations (1000 and 2000 ppm), the amount of asphaltene deposition during CO₂ injection has been investigated. The obtained results show that increasing the injection pressure (from immiscible to miscible) causes an increase in asphaltene deposition and the use of nanoparticles will reduce the amount of asphaltene deposition.