Critical Review of Stabilized Nanoparticle Transport in Porous Media

Over the past few decades, due to the special features (i.e., easily produced, large-surface-area-to-volume ratio, and engineered particles with designed surface properties), nanoparticles have not only attracted great attentions from the oil and gas industry, but also had various applications from drilling and completion, reservoir characterization, to enhanced oil recovery (EOR). As sensors or EOR agents, thus, fate and behaviour of nanoparticles in porous media are essential and need to be investigated thoroughly. Nevertheless, most of the published review papers focus on particle transport in saturated porous media, and all of them are about steady-state flow conditions. So far, no attempts have been extended to systematically review current knowledge about nanoparticle transport in porous media with single-phase and two-phase flow systems under both steady-state and unsteady-state conditions. Accordingly, this review will discuss nanoparticle transport phenomena in porous media with its focus on the filtration mechanisms, the underlying interaction forces, and factors dominating nanoparticle transport behaviour in porous media. Finally, mathematical models used to describe nanoparticle transport in porous media for both single-phase flow and two-phase flow under steady-state and transient flow conditions will be summarized, respectively.