Environmentally Friendly Cross-linking of Hydrolysed Polyacrylamide Gels

Hydrolysed Polyacrylamide (HPAM) gels have been used to block zones with high water permeability in oil reservoirs and thereby achieve a better sweep efficiency for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The HPAM gels have traditionally been crosslinked by Cr (III) ions, and there is outermost interest to find more environmentally friendly cross-linkers. In the present work, environmentally friendly functionalized hybrid nanomaterials have been synthesized and characterized and used as cross-linkers for HPAM. The results showed that these nanomaterials can effectively cross-link HPAM and lead to the formation of the HPAM gels. The gelation times of HPAM can be tuned by varying concentration and modification degree of the functionalization of the nanomaterials. This makes the system promising for use for in-depth placement in oil reservoirs.