Investigating the Effect of Various Nanomaterials on the Wettability of Sandstone Reservoir

Wettability is the ability of a fluid to stick to a solid surface in the presence of other immiscible fluids. Wettability alteration is crucial as it affects the amount of oil recovered from a given reser-voir. The majority of enhanced oil recovery mechanisms purposefully alter the wettability of the reservoir rock from oil-wet to water-wet; to increase the amount of oil recovered from it. This study investigates the effect of various nanomaterials on the wettability, and particularly the brine phase contact angle, of a sand stone reservoir. The nanomaterials used are Magnesium/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide, Silica/Zirconia, and a combination of 80.0 % Magnesium/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide (Mg/Al-LDH) and 20.0 % Silica/Zirconia (Zi/Zr). The results suggest that a concentration of 4.0 g/L of Magnesium/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide (Mg/Al-LDH) decreases the brine phase contact angle, in the presence of oil, from 66 ˚ to 60 ˚ in 0.033 minute as opposed to Silica/Zirconia which increases the brine phase contact angle to 68 ˚ in the same time interval. The combination of both nanoparticles results in a decrease of 1.0 ˚ in the brine phas