Comparative Study on the Static Adsorption Behavior of Zwitterionic Surfactants on Minerals in Middle Bakken Formation

Abstract

Zwitterionic surfactants are promising additives especially for harsh reservoir conditions because of their high stability and good compatibility, as well as amazing interfacial activity; however, surfactant adsorption is always of great concern. In this paper, the spectrophotometric method was applied to study the adsorption behavior of zwitterionic surfactants on complex Middle Bakken minerals at high-temperature (105 °C) and high-salinity [total dissolved solids (TDS) = 289 820 mg/L] conditions, and the impacts of concentration, salinity, temperature, mineral types, and surfactant types were investigated. Experimental results show that the adsorption isotherms of the zwitterionic surfactant fit well with the Langmuir adsorption model, with adsorption density increasing fast at lower concentrations and generally reaching the equilibrium. Salinity has varying influences on the adsorption of zwitterionic surfactants with different acidic and/or basic groups. Betaine-type zwitterionic surfactants BW and CA, where −COO– functional groups have the potential to gain protons, showed an adsorption decrease of 2.06 ± 0.02 mg/g when Bakken formation brine was applied instead of deionized water, whereas hydroxysultaine-type surfactant CS-50, which can be neither protonated nor deprotonated, shows a small increase of 0.35 mg/g because of the adsorption energy difference of different functional groups. Higher temperature causes desorption of zwitterionic surfactants, but chemical degradation or solubility difference may compensate for this gap at an elevated temperature range of 80–105 °C. Further data analysis indicated that concentration, mineral types, and the interaction effects of concentration and mineral types are the three dominant influential factors that affect zwitterionic surfactant adsorption. The driving forces for adsorption vary for different surfactants, and small changes in certain factors can lead to significant differences. Zwitterionic surfactants were found to have higher adsorption on Bakken minerals than nonionic surfactant hazard communication standard and anionic surfactant 964 regardless of the salinity.

Experimental investigation, binary modelling and artificial neural network prediction of surfactant adsorption for enhanced oil recovery application

“…Several researches explained the effect of temperature on surfactant adsorption. Zhong et al [29] studied the adsorption of different surfactant classifications and explained that adsorption is an exothermic process, showing that adsorption density at higher temperatures is reduced. Another reason is valid to explain this phenomenon, which is related to the adsorbent itself, since the crushed rock used in this study is quartz dominated.…”

“…Many types of surfactants are evaluated using static and dynamic adsorption tests to assess their adsorption behaviour when mixed with the reservoir rock in practical reservoir conditions. Several adsorption studies were conducted on sand reservoir rocks with inconsistent outcomes [16] , [22] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] . However, exploring the adsorption mechanism in harsh reservoir conditions has not been conducted comprehensively.…”

Increased Nonionic Surfactant Efficiency in Oil Recovery by Integrating with Hydrophilic Silica Nanoparticle

“…The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) demonstrate that the Bakken sample is composed of 41.5 wt % quartz, 23.7 wt % carbonate, 16.9 wt % clay, 14.1 wt % feldspar, and a few percent pyrite, whereas the Berea sample mainly consists of 79.6 wt % quartz and 13.1 wt % feldspar. 19,20 2.2. Static Adsorption Test.…”

Properties and applications of amphoteric surfactant: A concise review

“…Surfactants adsorbed on rock surface improve oil recovery by decreased IFT and enhancing capillary numbers and adjusting the rock wettability toward more aqueous‐wet (Kamal et al, 2018; Pal et al, 2016, 2017, 2018; Saxena et al, 2017). The adsorption of amphoteric surfactants on middle bakken minerals improves salt resistance and boost interfacial properties (Zhong et al, 2019). Also, improved salinity and alkalinity of the surfactant solution often increase surfactant adsorption and wettability adjustment, because of ion‐pair formation on the sandstone and carbonate surfaces between the hydrophilic headgroup of amphoteric and the adsorbed crude‐oil components (Kumar & Mandal, 2019).…”