Novel green surfactant made from L-aspartic acid as enhancer of oil production from sandstone reservoirs: Wettability, IFT, microfluidic, and core flooding assessments

Deljooei, Masoud; Zargar, Ghasem; Nooripoor, Vahid; Takassi, Mohammad Ali; Esfandiarian, Ali

doi:10.1016/j.molliq.2020.115037

Cited by 34 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…These results are summarized in Table 6. SCA proved superior to other AAS reported in the literature (Rostami et al 2017;Madani et al 2019;Asl et al 2020;Deljooei et al 2021). k L = 0.000265 q max = 13.64 0.9525 k L = 0.00017 q max = 15.94 0.9881 Freundlich k F = 0.000042 1 n = 1.4103 0.8904 k F = 0.0056 The superior performance of SCA could be attributed to the fatty acid source of its hydrophobic group.…”

Section: Oil Recovery Potentialmentioning

confidence: 62%

Investigation of the enhanced oil recovery potential of sodium cocoyl alaninate: an eco-friendly surfactant

Tackie-Otoo

Ayoub

Owusu

2022

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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Amino acid-based surfactants (AASs) and other novel surfactants have recently gained attention to provide a favorable environmental image (“green”) in surfactant application. Yet their potential in enhancing oil recovery is not well investigated. Only a few works have been reported on their potential enhanced oil recovery (EOR) application with less satisfactory results. Here in, sodium cocoyl alaninate (SCA), an acylated amino acid with excellent properties that facilitate its application in other fields, is investigated for its EOR potential. Its effectiveness in lowering the interfacial tension and the emulsifying crude oil–brine mixture were studied. The ability to alter rock surface wettability and its adsorption behavior on the sand surface were studied as well. Then, its oil recovery potential was confirmed through a core displacement experiment. All studies were performed in comparison with conventionally deployed sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The critical micelle concentrations for SCA (CMC = 0.23 wt%) and SDS (CMC = 0.21 wt%) were close, which serves as a good basis for comparing their EOR potential. SCA proved to be more effective in IFT reduction attaining a minimum IFT of 0.069 mN/m (i.e., ~ 98.8% IFT reduction) compared to 0.222 mN/m of SDS (i.e., ~ 96.2% IFT reduction) at the same concentration. Salinity showed a synergistic effect on the interfacial properties of both SCA and SDS but had a more significant impact on SDS interfacial properties than SCA due to low salt tolerance of SDS. The low IFT attained by SCA yielded enhanced emulsion formation and stable emulsion both at 25 °C and 80 °C for a period of one week. SCA also altered quartz surface wettability better via reduction of contact angle by 94.55% compared to SDS with contact angle reduction of 87.51%. The adsorption data were analyzed with the aid of various adsorption isotherm models. The adsorption behavior of SCA and SDS could be best described by the Langmuir model. This means a monomolecular surfactant layer exists at the aqueous–rock interface. SDS also exhibited more severe adsorption on the sand surface with the maximum adsorption density of 15.94 mg/g compared to SCA with the maximum adsorption density of 13.64 mg/g. The core flood data also confirmed that SCA has a better oil recovery potential than SDS with an additional oil recovery of 29.53% compared to 23.83% of SDS. This additional oil recovery was very satisfactory compared to the performance of other AAS that have been studied. This study therefore proves that SCA and other AAS could be outstanding alternatives to conventional EOR surfactants owing to their excellent EOR potential in addition to their environmental benign nature.

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Section: Oil Recovery Potentialmentioning

confidence: 62%

Investigation of the enhanced oil recovery potential of sodium cocoyl alaninate: an eco-friendly surfactant

Tackie-Otoo

Ayoub

Owusu

2022

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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“…Therefore, the need to screen candidate chemicals that can both withstand such conditions and improve oil recovery is inevitable and an important aspect of cEOR design for these reservoirs. To overcome some of these challenges, many attempts have been made to synthesize, design, and evaluate chemical/surfactant formulations under such harsh reservoir conditions. − Others worked to introduce nanoparticles − and ionic liquids − along with surfactant flooding.…”

Section: Future Prospects and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oil Recovery Performance by Surfactant Flooding: A Perspective on Multiscale Evaluation Methods

et al. 2022

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Chemical-enhanced oil recovery (cEOR) is a class of techniques commonly used to extract hydrocarbon fluids from reservoir rocks beyond conventional waterflooding. Surfactants are among the chemical agents employed in a cEOR process, as they aid in enhancing oil recovery by lowering the oil–water interfacial tension (IFT) and altering the rock wettability toward less oil-wet conditions. Understanding the flow characteristics and mechanisms involved during surfactant flooding helps improve the performance of injected surfactants and results in higher oil recovery. The objective of this review is to outline the recent applications of the different methods employed to understand the behavior and mechanisms involved during surfactant-enhanced oil recovery. The review begins with a general background highlighting the basic characteristics of surfactants and the main mechanisms by which they exert their influence. Recent studies conducted to investigate the oil recovery performance through different methods are then presented, including traditional coreflooding experiments, microfluidics studies, and oil recovery through sand packs. The methodology of the analysis and the interpretation of the data obtained from the different oil recovery tests, including oil recovery factor, pressure data, and relative permeability, are also described. Pore-scale analysis and imaging methods including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and X-ray medical and microcomputed tomography (μCT) scanning and their applicability in assessing the recovery performance are described. Finally, a few examples of field monitoring methods for surfactant flooding are highlighted. This review provides knowledge of the different multiscale evaluation methods and their applicability during surfactant flooding.

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“…According to the Young–Laplace equation, wettability and interfacial tension (IFT) are the primary factors of imbibition. Surfactants can both reduce the IFT and change the wettability. , The International Organization for Standardization divides surfactants into four types (anionic surfactants with anionic groups, cationic surfactants with cationic groups, amphoteric surfactants with both anionic and cationic groups, and nonionic surfactants with nonionic groups). It has been proposed that there are three main mechanisms for surfactants to reverse the wettability in sandstone reservoirs (ion-pair formation, surfactant adsorption, and micellar solubilization). − Feng and Liang found that anionic surfactants have much more potential than cationic surfactants to enhance oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs, and they confirmed that the displacement efficiency is slightly higher for anionic surfactants compared to that for cationic surfactants .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation on Spontaneous Imbibition of Surfactant Mixtures in Low Permeability Reservoirs

et al. 2023

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Spontaneous imbibition of surfactants could efficiently enhance oil recovery in low permeability sandstone reservoirs. The majority of studies have considered the application of individual surfactants to alter wettability and reduce interfacial tension (IFT). However, a significant synergistic effect has been reported between different types of surfactants and between salts and surfactants. Therefore, this study systematically studied the capability of a binary surfactant mixture (anionic/nonionic) and a ternary surfactant mixture (anionic/nonionic/strong base–weak acid salt) in imbibition enhanced oil recovery (IEOR). The interfacial properties and the cores’ wettability were explored by IFT and contact angle measurements, respectively. Subsequently, the imbibition performances of different types of surfactant solutions were discussed. The results suggested that the surfactants’ potential to enhance oil recovery followed the order of ternary surfactant mixture > binary surfactant mixture > anionic > nonionic > amphoteric > polymer. The ternary surfactant mixture exhibited strong capacity to reverse the rock surface from oil-wet (125°) to strongly water-wet (3°), which was more significant than both binary surfactant mixtures and individual surfactants. In addition, the ternary surfactant mixture led to an ultralow IFT value of 0.0015 mN/m, achieving the highest imbibition efficiency (45% OOIP). This research puts forward some new ideas on the application of the synergistic effects of surfactants in IEOR from low-permeability sandstone reservoirs.

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Novel green surfactant made from L-aspartic acid as enhancer of oil production from sandstone reservoirs: Wettability, IFT, microfluidic, and core flooding assessments

Cited by 34 publications

References 61 publications

Investigation of the enhanced oil recovery potential of sodium cocoyl alaninate: an eco-friendly surfactant

Investigation of the enhanced oil recovery potential of sodium cocoyl alaninate: an eco-friendly surfactant

Oil Recovery Performance by Surfactant Flooding: A Perspective on Multiscale Evaluation Methods

Experimental Investigation on Spontaneous Imbibition of Surfactant Mixtures in Low Permeability Reservoirs

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