Performance improvement of ionic surfactant flooding in carbonate rock samples by use of nanoparticles

Abstract

Various surfactants have been used in upstream petroleum processes like chemical flooding. Ultimately, the performance of these surfactants depends on their ability to reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water. The surfactant concentration in the aqueous solution decreases owing to the loss of the surfactant on the rock surface in the injection process. The main objective of this paper is to inhibit the surfactant loss by means of adding nanoparticles. Sodium dodecyl sulfate and silica nanoparticles were used as ionic surfactant and nanoparticles in our experiments, respectively. AEROSIL Ò 816 and AEROSIL Ò 200 are hydrophobic and hydrophilic nanoparticles. To determine the adsorption loss of the surfactant onto rock samples, a conductivity approach was used. Real carbonate rock samples were used as the solid phase in adsorption experiments. It should be noted that the rock samples were water wet. This paper describes how equilibrium adsorption was investigated by examining adsorption behavior in a system of carbonate sample (solid phase) and surfactant solution (aqueous phase). The initial surfactant and nanoparticle concentrations were 500-5000 and 500-2000 ppm, respectively. The rate of surfactant losses was extremely dependent on the concentration of the surfactant in the system, and the adsorption of the surfactant decreased with an increase in the nanoparticle concentration. Also, the hydrophilic nanoparticles are more effective than the hydrophobic nanoparticles.

Application of Novel Colloidal Silica Nanoparticles in the Reduction of Adsorption of Surfactant and Improvement of Oil Recovery Using Surfactant Polymer Flooding

“…As the surfactant reached its CMC value, the slope of the conductivity versus concentration graph decreases ( Figure 2 ), which is due to the formation of micelles. 33 Since the conductivity of the surfactant is only due to the free surfactant ions present in the aqueous phase, when the surfactant concentration increases beyond its CMC value, the surfactant molecules begin to form micelles and the ratio of free surfactant molecules to surfactant micelles decreases; hence, the slope of the conductivity graph decreases. The sharp change in the nature of the curve was obtained at 2483 ppm (8.61 mM/L), which was reported as the CMC of the surfactant.…”

“…The adsorption was calculated using eq 1 . 33 , 40 where A is the adsorption of the surfactant in mg/g; C i and C f are the initial and final concentrations of the surfactant, respectively, in solution in ppm, M s is the mass of the solution in grams, and M r is the mass of the rock samples added to the surfactant solution in grams.…”

Green synthesise of CuO@Fe 3 O 4 @Xantan nanocomposites and its application in enhanced oil recovery by considering IFT and wettability behaviours

“…The interfacial tension (IFT) and rock wettability between the present fluids are the main parameters that affect the recovery efficiency are proven to be crucial factors [8][9][10]. Chemical processes were conventionally used to alter the wettability of the rocks toward water-wet conditions and reduce the IFT between oil and aqueous phases [11,12]. Nonetheless, the high cost of such materials, the possibility of reservoir damage, loss through chemical activity are the main challenges when applying the current enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods [10,11].…”

“…Chemical processes were conventionally used to alter the wettability of the rocks toward water‐wet conditions and reduce the IFT between oil and aqueous phases [11, 12]. Nonetheless, the high cost of such materials, the possibility of reservoir damage, loss through chemical activity are the main challenges when applying the current enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods [10, 11]. Indeed, new EOR technology with low cost, high efficiency, and which is eco‐friendly needs to be developed.…”

Optimization of Dynamic Interfacial Tension for Crude Oil–Brine System in the Presence of Nonionic Surfactants

“…The IFT reduction between water and oil using surfactants has been studied by many researchers (Ge and Wang, 2015;Jeirani et al, 2013;Schramm, 2000). Anionic surfactants such as sodium sulfonates are most commonly used for the EOR applications (Ahmad et al, 2018;Ahmadi and James, 2016;Meng et al, 2018;Pal et al, 2018;Vankayala et al, 2018). However, nonionic surfactants, especially the industrial ones, have been used more in the last decades due to their inexpensiveness and adequate availability (Lu et al, 2014).…”