A New Framework to Quantify the Wetting Behaviour of Carbonate Rock Surfaces Based on the Relationship between Zeta Potential and Contact Angle

Abstract

This study introduces a new framework to quantify the wettability of powdered carbonate rock from existing correlations between zeta potential and contact angle. The new framework has the potential to be faster and cheaper than conventional approaches and could increase confidence in surface wetting quantification, since the results are insensitive to the inherent heterogeneity of rock surfaces. The obtained results from experiments were used to develop a set of equations for determining the carbonate rock contact angle from streaming potential data. The equations were validated for the evaluation of changes in the wettability of carbonate rock using different stearic acid oily solutions. The contact angles calculated from the proposed equations were then compared with measured values on the calcite surface. The results show that the proposed framework was able to quantify the wettability of carbonate rock with an acceptable range of error of about 4%–14%.

Modeling of Limestone Dissolution for Flue Gas Desulfurization with Novel Implications

“…The surface of the reaction is changing with time, and it will be decreasing eventually, although the specific surface area increases even if this is not always the case [10,33]. On the other hand, the shape factor for this kind of particle might not be fixed, and it could vary from the case presented here, which could also be studied further.…”

“…In fact, our previous investigations on this kind of sample [30] demonstrated that the sedimentary limestone had around ten times more surface in comparison with the metamorphic one. However, it is also demonstrated that the effective surface actually used during the reactions can be very different because of surface-liquid interactions such as zeta potential [31,32] and surface tension [20,33,34]. Figure 2 gives a precise visual of the sample differences between the two kinds of limestone.…”

“…Figures 3 and 4 demonstrate the PSD for the first measure done at each titration step for the sedimentary and metamorphic samples, respectively. [20,33,34]. Figure 2 gives a precise visual of the sample differences between the two kinds of limestone.…”

“…A stochastic pattern of superficial detachment is expected during the process that is complex enough to ascertain that the reactivity of the particles is not constant; nevertheless, in practice, the observed reactivity is a robust statistical estimator due to numerical compensation, as shown in Table 4. The actual reactive portion of the outer layer rounds is reported as 20% of the grain surface [48], which depends upon the composition of the bulk (especially the conductivity of the medium), the instantaneous size distribution of the particles, the interfacial tension, and the agitation conditions [2,33,37]. The values determined in this work are within the same order of magnitude as the reported experimentally by Sjöberg and Rickard (1984) [41] and later calculated by Letterman (1995) [2] in similar conditions.…”

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Acid and Base on Wettability Alteration of a Calcite Surface

“…n-Decane is a nonpolar and nonreactive solvent that has been reported to affect surface wettability insignificantly. 24,25 Acidic components were represented by stearic acid, which is a long-chain saturated carboxylic acid naturally found in crude oil. The water solubility and dissociation constant (pK a ) of stearic acid at 25 °C are 0.597 mg/L 26 and 4.75, 27 respectively.…”