Investigation into the Oil Recovery Process Using an Organic Alkali–Amino Acid-Based Surfactant System

Abstract

The development of combinatory flooding has evolved over the years to utilize the synergies that come into play upon combining more than one chemical agent in a chemical flooding process. This study focuses on investigating the synergies that exist in combining monoethanolamine (ETA) and sodium cocoyl alaninate (SCA) as an alkali–surfactant (AS) formulation for the enhanced oil recovery process. A conventional formulation made of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used for a comparative purpose. The proposed formulation proved to be compatible with the prepared hard brine. The ETA–SCA combination proved superior to Na2CO3–SDS in interfacial tension (IFT) reduction and wettability alteration. Addition of ETA to SCA synergistically reduced IFT to a low value of 4.73 × 10–2 mN/m at a surfactant concentration lower than the critical micelle concentration (CMC). ETA also played a synergistic role in improving the wetting power of SCA on quartz surface. The formulation also showed a high emulsifying ability owing to its superior IFT reduction capability. Static adsorption studies showed SCA to exhibit Langmuir-type adsorption behavior similar to SDS. The adsorption of SCA onto a sand surface was favorable, but ETA proved to reduce adsorption of SCA effectively at 0.3 wt %. The ETA–SCA and Na2CO3–SDS systems achieved additional oil recoveries of 31 and 25% original oil in place (OOIP) over conventional core flooding, respectively. The proposed AS formulation, therefore, showed better recovery potential in addition to its environmentally friendly nature.

Kaolin-Supported Silver Nanoparticles as an Effective Catalyst for the Removal of Methylene Blue Dye from Aqueous Solutions

“…56,70 A sharp and clear peak around 535 cm −1 corresponds with Si−O−Al bending vibration, indicating that aluminum oxide is also contained next to silicon oxide. 71,72 The XRD patterns of Ag-NPs/kaolin composite are also shown in Figure 2B. According to previous studies, the diffraction peaks of kaolin found at 2θ = 19.94°, 35.30°, 38.48°, 54.52°, and 62.36°were ascribed to kaolinite.…”

“…The tiny weak peaks at 2920 cm –1 from the raw kaolin attribute aliphatic hydrocarbon (CH) stretching, indicating an organic impurity, but because of beneficiation, the presence is insignificant. The small peak at 790 cm –1 is attributed to metal impurity bonded with aluminum and hydroxyl (Al-Mg-OH) vibration. , A sharp and clear peak around 535 cm –1 corresponds with Si–O–Al bending vibration, indicating that aluminum oxide is also contained next to silicon oxide. , …”

Interfacial Properties, Wettability Alteration and Emulsification Properties of an Organic Alkali–Surface Active Ionic Liquid System: Implications for Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…The wettability reversal could also occur through alterations of the oil–water or liquid–solid IFT [ 72 ]. ETA, being a weak alkali, would have a weak interaction with the rock; therefore, wettability reversal is not as effective as in the case of inorganic alkalis [ 73 ]. This interaction yields hydrogen bonding between its hydroxyl group and the rock minerals, replacing the polar compounds adsorbed on the rock surface [ 17 ].…”

“…On the other hand, the addition of NaBO 2 to CTAB yielded a marginal improvement in the performance of CTAB. The observed synergism is attributed to the combined effect of different mechanisms of wettability alterations by surfactants and alkalis [ 73 ].…”

A Novel Empirical and Deep Ensemble Super Learning Approach in Predicting Reservoir Wettability via Well Logs

“…The increment was to accommodate enhanced and chemical oil recovery mechanisms and varying field cut-offs for net pay zones based on the field development plans and production forecasts. Based on several chemical enhanced oil recovery at field scale, residual oil saturation at 20% is optimal [40]. The overall reservoir water saturation and NMR T 2 LM relationship were established using cross plots.…”