Events

Speaker: Dr. Vladimir Alvarado, Professor and Department Head of Chemical Engineering, University of Wyoming 

Title of Seminar: "Interfacial Dynamics – One hypothesis for Improved Low-Salinity Waterflooding"

Abstract: Low-salinity waterflooding is one of those problems in improved-oil recovery (IOR) that offers the potential for a variety of coexisting hypotheses regarding IOR mechanisms. Wettability alteration has been claimed as a potential explanation for improved recovery and supporting evidence has been collected in numerous experiments at various labs. While this is plausible and observations seem to support it, a satisfactory mechanistic explanation for the required oil mobility/connectivity leading to a reduction in residual oil saturation has not been provided as of yet, in my view. Work inspired by emulsion stability research at the University of Wyoming led us to the analysis of the water-crude oil interfacial dynamics, i.e. interfacial rheology. Motivating results from water-in-oil emulsions will be presented to illustrate a connection between interfacial dynamic behavior and emulsion stability. Subsequently, a series of interfacial rheological results and modeling of choke-off are used to show the connection between enhanced interfacial viscoelastic responses and suppression of snap-off. Finally, coreflooding results seem to support the connection between these dynamic fluid-fluid interactions and IOR response to low-salinity and smart-water flooding. Interfacial dynamic mechanisms opens the door for IOR processes well beyond current smart-water flooding technologies.

Biography: Vladimir Alvarado is a Full Professor and Department Head in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Geology and Geophysics, and Petroleum Engineering as well as the School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming. He holds more than 20 years of experience in Exploration and Production at several organizations. He started his career at the Venezuelan State Oil Company Research Center, PDVSA-Intevep, where he led several R&D projects, including the largest strategic research project on EOR. He served as Adjunct Associate Professor at USB (Caracas, Venezuela) from 1999 to 2003 in the Department of Thermodynamics and Transfer Phenomena, where he co-organized a graduate program in Reservoir Engineering. In 2003, Dr. Alvarado became a Visiting Professor in the Oil and Gas program at PUC-Rio, sponsored by the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP). From 2005 to 2008 he acted as a senior consultant for Norwest-Questa working on Enhanced Oil Recovery projects. In 2006, he joined the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering University of Wyoming. Alvarado holds a B.Sc. in Physics from Universidad Central de Venezuela, a Masters in Exploration and Production from IFP (Institut Fraçais du Pétrole, Paris, France) and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He has published more than 100 peer-review publications, book chapters and conference proceedings. He co-authored the book “Enhanced Oil Recovery: Field Planning and Development Strategies”, published by Gulf-Publishing, Elsevier, in 2010, which was also translated into Russian and Portuguese. He has mentored numerous graduate students at USB and UCV (Venezuela), PUC-Rio (Brazil) and the University of Wyoming. Alvarado is reviewer for more than 30 peer-review journals and is Executive Editor of SPE Journal.