Gel Permeability To Water
The gels that we study contain mostly water that is confined by a loose crosslinked polymer structure. The gel that we studied most extensively contained 0.5% Alcoflood 935 HPAM (molecular weight: ~5 million Daltons; degree of hydrolysis: 5-10%), 0.0417% Cr(III)-acetate, 1% NaCl, and 0.1%CaCl2. Water can flow through these gels, so they are permeable media. For the Alcoflood 935 HPAM polymer that was crosslinked with Cr(III) acetate (with a fixed polymer/crosslinker ratio of 12:1), the figure below plots the permeability of the gel to water as a function of the polymer concentration. Details of these measurements can be found in Seright, R.S.: "Using Chemicals to Optimize Conformance Control in Fractured Reservoirs," Annual Technical Progress Report (U.S. DOE Report DOE/BC/15110-2), U.S. DOE Contract DE-AC26-98BC15110 (Sept. 1999), pp. 21-27.
