Matrix Acidizing in Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs: A Comprehensive Review of Acidizing Mechanisms, Multiscale Modeling, and Computational Tools

ABSTRACT

Matrix acidizing is a well stimulation technique that is implemented to enhance the productivity of carbonate and sandstone reservoirs. Its effectiveness is influenced by several factors, such as the selection of the appropriate acid, mineral dissolution and precipitation, and chemical reactions in the pore scale. Nevertheless, conventional acids can cause not only corrosion and formation damage but also pose environmental and safety risks. In addition, current approaches make several simplifying assumptions, such as oversimplifying complex mineral reactions and ignoring secondary precipitation and geomechanical responses, resulting in the inability to generalize laboratory data to reservoir scale. This review covers, in a comprehensive manner, the suitable and environmentally favorable acid systems reported in the literature. Furthermore, it tries to comparatively evaluate the numerical approaches in terms of modeling methods, limitations, and advantages. The commonly used commercial and open‐source computational platforms are assessed based on their potential for pore‐scale reconstruction, geochemical coupling, reactive transport simulation, and large‐scale implementation. Overall, this review provides a multiscale roadmap linking pore‐scale mechanisms to field‐scale applications for improving the design and optimization of acidizing treatments in carbonate and sandstone reservoirs.