In this work a series of hydrocarbon solvent injection experiments was performed on glass micromodels with different throat orientations that were initially saturated with crude oil at several fixed flow rate conditions. The solvent concentration as a function of location and time was measured using image analysis of color intensity of continuously provided pictures during the injection process. The provided concentration calibration curve of solvent in crude oil was used for back-calculating the solvent concentration along the dispersion zone. The longitude and transverse dispersion coefficients were determined by fitting the results of the mathematical model to the experimental data. It was found that the longitude dispersion decreasedwhen the throat orientation angle increased. In contrast, the transverse dispersion increased. In addition, two trends were observed in variation of longitudinal and transversal dispersion versus Pe. For Pe < 50, the longitude and transverse dispersivities were equal to 2.94e-7 and 1.03e-6 cm2/sec, respectively, and for 50 < Pe < 400, they were equal to 1.34e-6 and 3.02e-7 cm2/sec. For the range of experiments performed here, it was found that the longitudinal-transversal dispersion ratio varied from 3.5 to 1.5 when the throat orientation angle changed from 0 to 60ı. The results of this work will be helpful in designing successful miscible enhanced oil recovery processes.

Keywords