Qualification of the Low Shear Polymer Valve - TRL6

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

The overall R&D challenge in this project is to build and demonstrate a flow control device which can manage a high capacity polymer flow without seriously degrading the polymer. The project includes defining, ranking and closing all technology gaps relevant for a field realistic pilot installation of the new Low Shear Polymer Valve, in order to make the technology commercially available. In the project, a full-scale pilot Polymer Valve will be built and tested, and the benefits in terms of reduced consumption of polymer and increased oil recovery demonstrated. The project will also include the development of tools for sizing of hardware, and prediction of performance of different qualities of polymers in terms of reduced mechanical degradation and EOR. Reducing the degradation of polymers will lead to a reduced amount of polymer injected for flooding operations, which will represent a considerable cost saving for the oil companies. Simulations show that a reduction of the mechanical degradation of polymer solution caused by chokes down to 10% or lower, might increase the oil recovery with more than 10% compared to the state of the art technology.