CFD Simulation of Biosurfactant Flooding into a Micromodel for Enhancing the Oil Recovery

In this research, the effect of biosurfactant flooding on the oil recovery factor using a CFD method is investigated.The porous medium is a 2D micromodel, and COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3 software is used to create the geometry and solving the governing equations on the system.Because of two different fluids exist into the porous medium; volume of fluid multiphase model was used for studying the fluid flow in the micromodel.Comparison of numerical results with the experimental data was done and a good agreement was observed between them.In addition, numerical data show that addition of the biosurfactant to the injected fluid causes an enhancement in the oil recovery factor and decreases the fingering effect.Also by biosurfactant flooding the breakthrough time increases, the surface tension between injected fluid and oil reduces and more surface area of the micromodel will be in contact with the injected fluid.So the oil recovery factor improves.Of course it should be mentioned that the shear stress acting on the biosurfactant is very harmful and it reduces its performance.