Heavy oil recovery by polymer flooding and hot water injection using numerical simulation

In adjusting the Arrhenius equation, we produced a generic equation for polymer thermal degradation. For water flooding (WFS), higher injection temperatures increased NPV, the highest temperature, 200 °C, resulting in the highest NPV largely due to lower oil viscosity. For polymer flooding (PFS), pre-flush of hot water substantially improved polymer injectivity, a common problem. For hot polymer injection, 100 °C was the optimum temperature for both oil production and NPV. For temperatures above 100 °C, polymer thermal degradation strongly decreased the recovery efficiency. The best strategy for oil recovery was to flush hot water before polymer injection at reservoir temperature, showing good sweep efficiency. At lower temperatures, the oil viscosity is considerably higher and negatively affects NPV in all strategies. We conclude that at optimal temperatures, around 100 °C in our test case, hot polymer injection is a viable alternative for heavy oil recovery.