The Role of Polyacrylamide in Petroleum

Polyacrylamide (PAM) is an important chemical additive in the petroleum industry, mainly used in the following aspects:

1. Improve crude oil recovery (tertiary oil recovery)

Mechanism of action: Injecting polyacrylamide solution into the oil layer can significantly increase the viscosity of the injected water and reduce the fluidity of the water (mobility control), thereby pushing the crude oil to the production well more evenly and reducing the retention of residual oil.

Effect: It can increase the recovery rate after traditional water flooding by 10%-30%, especially suitable for high permeability or heterogeneous oil reservoirs.

2. Drilling fluid additives

Function: As a thickener and lubricant, PAM can adjust the rheology of drilling fluid, reduce the friction between the drill bit and the well wall, stabilize the well wall and prevent collapse.

Advantages: Reduce drilling resistance, improve drilling efficiency, and reduce the risk of drill sticking.

3. Water plugging and profile control

Application scenario: For the highly permeable "water channels" in the oil layer, injecting PAM gel can selectively plug the water flow channel.

Mechanism: Through the cross-linking reaction, the gel is formed, forcing the subsequent injected wate

r to turn to the unexploited low-permeability area, thereby improving the oil recovery efficiency.

4. Fracturing fluid thickener

Fracturing process: During hydraulic fracturing, PAM solution is used as fracturing fluid to carry proppant (such as quartz sand) into rock fractures.

Key role: High-viscosity liquid can effectively transmit pressure to form fractures, ensure uniform distribution of proppant, and maintain long-term conductivity of fractures.

5. Oily wastewater treatment

Environmental application: As a flocculant, PAM aggregates tiny oil droplets and suspended matter in water through electrical neutralization and adsorption bridging, accelerating oil-water separation.

Treatment effect: Improve the quality of reinjection water, reduce environmental pollution risks, and promote the recycling of water resources.

Supplementary explanation

Effect of molecular weight: High molecular weight PAM (tens of millions) is more suitable for oil recovery and fracturing, while low molecular weight is used for drilling fluids.

Temperature and salt resistance: Some modified PAM (such as hydrophobic associating type) can adapt to high temperature and high salt reservoir environment.

Economical efficiency: Compared with other chemical oil recovery agents, PAM has low cost and significant effect, and is widely used in industry.

These applications reflect the characteristics of polyacrylamide in changing fluid behavior through physical and chemical effects, and play a key role in the entire life cycle of oil recovery.

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