Kar Taniya, Firoozabadi Abbas
Reservoir Engineering Research Institute, 595 Lytton Avenue, Suite B, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA.
Rice University, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
iScience. 2022 Apr 18;25(5):104266. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104266. eCollection 2022 May 20.
Viscosification of carbon dioxide by polymers can make large scale CO sequestration safe and efficient. We present solubility of branched hydrocarbon oligomers in CO and viscosification measurements at relevant subsurface conditions. Polymers of 1-decene (P1D) with about 20 repeating units are found to be effective in CO viscosification, increasing it by 6.5-fold at 1.8 wt% concentration at 308 K and 31 MPa. We reason that methyl groups and branching promote solubility and viscosification. Low molecular weight oligomers can have lower solubility in CO than higher molecular weight ones and the trend in solubility is non-monotonic at constant pressure and temperature. Analysis of solubility trend of P1D oligomers in CO advances our understanding of molecular structure and functionality and opens the path to engineering of oligomers effective in viscosification and widespread use of CO.
聚合物使二氧化碳增粘可使大规模二氧化碳封存安全且高效。我们展示了支链烃低聚物在二氧化碳中的溶解度以及在相关地下条件下的增粘测量结果。发现具有约20个重复单元的1-癸烯聚合物（P1D）在使二氧化碳增粘方面有效，在308K和31MPa下，1.8wt%浓度时可使其增粘6.5倍。我们推断甲基和支链促进了溶解度和增粘效果。低分子量低聚物在二氧化碳中的溶解度可能低于高分子量低聚物，且在恒定压力和温度下，溶解度趋势是非单调的。对P1D低聚物在二氧化碳中溶解度趋势的分析增进了我们对分子结构和功能的理解，并为有效增粘和广泛应用二氧化碳的低聚物工程开辟了道路。
