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The higher cost of chemical surfactants has been one of the main reasons for their limited used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process. Hence, the reason for developing lignin-based surfactant is to lower the cost of chemicals as it does not tie to the price of crude oil as compared to petroleum-based surfactants. Besides, lignin is biodegradable and easily extracted from plant waste. The objectives of this study are to determine the formulations of the lignin-based surfactant for EOR applications and to determine the oil recovery performance of the formulated surfactants through surfactant flooding. The lignin-based surfactants were formulated by mixing the lignin with the amine (polyacrylamide or hexamethylenetetramine) and the surfactant sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate in a 20,000 ppm NaCl brine. Interfacial tension (IFT) of the formulated lignin-based surfactant is measured at ambient temperature using the spinning drop method. The displacement experiments were conducted at room temperature in glass beads pack holders filled with glass beads, saturated with paraffin and brine. The results of the study showed that the best formulation of lignin-based surfactant is using hexamethylenetetramine as the amine, lignin, and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate at 2% total active concentration. The oil recovery and interfacial tension using the lignin amine system is comparable with the commercial petroleum sulfonate system.

Scientist have been using chemical treatment to alter the wettability of near wellbore region for condensate banking removal. However, this technique performed unsatisfactorily as the chemical treatment only reduce the surface free energy without modifying the surface roughness and affects the gas relative permeability negatively. Hence, in the present study, an alternative surface-modified nanoparticle using fluorine-based chemicals was developed as a new wettability alteration agent since fluorine exhibits high degree of water and oil repellency. The new wettability alteration agent was evaluated based on FTIR, DLS and TGA characterization. The results show that the surface of nanoparticles has been modified with fluorine-based chemicals coating and this is proven from: FTIR spectra with new peaks observed; DLS characterization with incremental size of surface-modified nanoparticles; and TGA with decomposition rate of coating agents. Implications of the results will path the way for future research direction in using fluorine-surface-modified-nanoparticles as a wettability alteration agent.