Polypropylene montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending using two different organoclays modified with imidazolium and alkylammonium surfactants. The imidazolium and ammonium modified organoclays were characterized by the FTIR and SEM analysis. The effect of organic clay (MMT) on the physical properties of polypropylene was evaluated, thermal and rheological properties with different filler weight percentage. Differential scanning calorimetric results showed that imidazolium modified clay (IMMT) exhibits low melting temperature compared to the ammonium modified clay (AMMT). The crystallinity analysis showed that crystallization improved in all nanocomposites irrespective of surface modification; the thermogravimetric analysis showed that the imidazolium modified polymer composites are more thermally stable than conventional ammonium modified composites. The Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analyses indicated that the PP-IMMT composites displayed exfoliated morphologies compared with the intercalated structure in PP-AMMT, and the rheological analysis at 180 ∘ C showed an enhancement in the viscoelastic properties as the clay concentration increases. The melt viscosity, crossover modulus, and relaxation times were comparable for both the surface modified composites with two different cations. The imidazolium based surfactant was found to be an effective organic modification for MMT to prepare thermally stable PP/MMT nanocomposites.

Polypropylene (PP) is a commodity material that has been increasingly used in different industries in the past two decades due to its versatile properties when enhanced with additives. Homo polypropylene, in general, has weak mechanical properties and limited chemical resistance; thus, using a different type of fillers to adjust such properties to fit the required applications opened a large market for this commodity. Understanding the interface constituent between the polymer matrix and the added filler and the nucleation behavior is a key to fine control of the enhancement of PP properties. In this study, PP was incorporated with nano calcium carbonate (CaCO3) at 2 and 5 wt% in the presence of maleic anhydride (MAH) to overcome the weak interface due to low polymer polarity. The mix was compounded in a twin screws extruder at a temperature range of 180–200 °C ; then, the prepared samples were left to dry for 24 h at 25 °C. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was used to study the interface adhesion of the nanofiller and the curved revealed that at 2% of nano CaCO3 PP structure remained the same and the nano experienced good adhesion to the polymer matrix. The mechanical impact resistance results showed a real enhancement to the polymer matrix of the nanocomposite by 37%. Moreover, DSC results showed a faster crystallinity rate due to the nanofiller acting as a nucleating agent and rheology tests indicated that low content of nano additive (2%) has better processability behavior, with suitable viscosity complex values at high frequencies.

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Water injection technique is contributing millions of oil barrels on a daily basis to the global oil supply; one of the challenges faced by such an important production method is scale buildup due to the different dissolved solids and high salinity of the injected water. For produced water or effluent water, pretreatment is a critical step before the injection process to reduce the risk of scale potential and well formation damage. One of the beneficial treatments of the effluent water is to be mixed in a compatible ratio with seawater, especially for those countries with easy access to seawater. Thus, the objective is to find a compatible mix ratio with seawater as one way of solving effluent water reuse without increasing the risk of scale and formation damage during water injection operation. In this study, effluent water samples were collected from different oilfield geographical locations in Kuwait, and then the samples were analyzed in the laboratory for their physical and chemical properties to select the most compatible one for mixing with seawater. The selected effluent water was then mixed with seawater in 1:1 ratio to evaluate the compatibility of the mix in terms of sulfate formation and scale tendency. The selected North field/seawater was tested under 75 ºC and 1000 PSi in an autoclave. The filtered precipitates were characterized by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and scanning electronic microscope (SEM) micrographs. Further, the formations of sulfate were detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The OLI ScaleChem software was used to investigate the composition of mineral scales that may occur in the water mix at different ratios ranging from 0 to 100% to compare it with the actual water mix finding. In the effluent waters comparison part, North field water showed low pH (4.6) and alkalinity, as well as moderate TDS (190,000 MG/L). The main constituents of the scale deposited at the selected water mixing ratio were calcium sulfate CaSO 4 and silicon oxide detected by XRD. However, the amount of barium sulfate was not presented in the precipitates indicating that all of it went in the liquid phase. The study concludes that at downhole conditions, the compatible mix of North Kuwait effluent water with seawater has high risk of barium sulfate in comparison with other common scale such as calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate and strontium sulfate (SrSO 4). Also the study revealed that the prediction of different seawater ratios showed that at 70% seawater concentration, the barium sulfate concentration drops and consequently the scale risk reduced.