Modification of Xanthan Gum for a High-Temperature and High-Salinity Reservoir

Abstract

Tertiary oil recovery, commonly known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR), is performed when secondary recovery is no longer economically viable. Polymer flooding is one of the EOR methods that improves the viscosity of injected water and boosts oil recovery. Xanthan gum is a relatively cheap biopolymer and is suitable for oil recovery at limited temperatures and salinities. This work aims to modify xanthan gum to improve its viscosity for high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs. The xanthan gum was reacted with acrylic acid in the presence of a catalyst in order to form xanthan acrylate. The chemical structure of the xanthan acrylate was verified by FT-IR and NMR analysis. The discovery hybrid rheometer (DHR) confirmed that the viscosity of the modified xanthan gum was improved at elevated temperatures, which was reflected in the core flood experiment. Two core flooding experiments were conducted using six-inch sandstone core plugs and Arabian light crude oil. The first formulation—the xanthan gum with 3% NaCl solution—recovered 14% of the residual oil from the core. In contrast, the modified xanthan gum with 3% NaCl solution recovered about 19% of the residual oil, which was 5% higher than the original xanthan gum. The xanthan gum acrylate is therefore more effective at boosting tertiary oil recovery in the sandstone core.

Synthesis and Evaluation of Rutin–Hydroxypropyl β-Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complexes Embedded in Xanthan Gum-Based (HPMC-g-AMPS) Hydrogels for Oral Controlled Drug Delivery

“…Additionally, HPMC showed an important stretching vibration at 1459,1119 cm −1 assigned to CH 3 and C-O-C bonds [ 58 ]. Xanthan gum exhibits stretching vibrations at 3270 cm −1 due to axial deformation of the O-H. At 2879 cm −1 , the peak results from the stretching vibrations of the C-H group, while at 1705 cm −1 , the peak results from stretching vibrations of the C-O group, while the bands near 1601 cm −1 are due to the axial deformation of the C-O portion of the enol [ 59 ]. FTIR spectra of AMPS revealed a peak at 1461 cm −1 corresponding to the binding vibration of CH 2 .…”

Nested biofabrication: Matryoshka-inspired Intra-embedded Bioprinting

“…The methacrylation reaction was validated with fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests. FTIR data of GelMA and XaGMA suggested that the peak changes at 1640-1710 cm −1 range were due to C=O and C=C bonds in methacrylic anhydride [13][14][15] (Figures 2B1-B2). NMR data suggested that the peak at 2.9 ppm represented the methylene of lysine amino acid and its reduction from gelatin to GelMA signified the reduction in the associated proton intensity due to the modification done by methacrylic anhydride.…”

Synthesis and rheological properties of water soluble ionic copolymers as modifier fluids at high temperature and saline media

“…Water soluble polyacrylamide (PAM) and their derivative (co)polymers are widely used as viscosifying fluids in several industrial applications such as: paints and coatings, wastewater treatment, textile and paper industries, soil stabilizers, mining and oil/gas industries, among others 1–9 . In the case of petrochemical industry, the most interesting application of water soluble (co)polymers is related to their capacities to control the viscosity of aqueous media inside the well 10–17 . Nevertheless, due to the harsh conditions of some wells characterized by the presence of high salt concentration superior to 250,000 ppm and temperature range between 140 and 180°C, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process requires the use of polymeric materials able to maintain the structure–property relationship throughout their applications as polymer flooding.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] In the case of petrochemical industry, the most interesting application of water soluble (co)polymers is related to their capacities to control the viscosity of aqueous media inside the well. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Nevertheless, due to the harsh conditions of some wells characterized by the presence of high salt concentration superior to 250,000 ppm and temperature range between 140 and 180 C, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process requires the use of polymeric materials able to maintain the structureproperty relationship throughout their applications as polymer flooding. Consequently, the development of EOR process under abovementioned conditions needs the use specific (co)polymers capable to resist to high salinity concentration and high temperature range with the aim to preserve the viscosity of the aqueous media allowing the recovery of crude oil.…”