Several sulfonation parameters, believed to be critical to the manufacture of good quality ct-olefin sulfonate (AOS), are related to product color and conversion. The interfacial properties for single carbon number AOS and the major components comprising AOS are investigated. Results, based on surface activity, indicate that AOS in the molecular weight range from C14 through C 18 should be of value in formulating efficient cleaning agents. The data show that AOS is more effective for lowering Crisco| interfacial energy than the more commonly used surfactants. The alkene-l-sulfonate component of AOS was found to be most effective in lowering interfacial energy with the hydroxyalkane-1-sulfonate component being significantly less effective but still more effective than alcohol ether sulfate or linear alkylbenzene sulfonate of comparable molecular weight. Hand dishwashing efficacy was found greatest for the hydroxyalkane-l-sulfonate component of AOS, but combinations of hydroxyalkane-1-sulfonates and alkene-l-sulfonates were shown to be synergistic for laundering applications. The presence of the -OH group in the hydroxyalkane sulfonate structure was shown to increase solubility and lower surface activity significantly more than the presence of unsaturation in the alkene sulfonate. Long, single branching in the (~-olefin sulfonate and random internal olefin sulfonate are shown to reduce drastically the surface activity. The hydroxyalkane and alkene-l-sulfonates were rapidly biodegraded. Disulfonates and long, singly branched sulfonate were more slowly degraded. Both 1,3-sultones and 1,4sultones were found to biodegrade rapidly.

Determination of the thermal stability of α‐olefin sulfonates (AOS) via the conventional activation energy approach was found to be impractical because of the difficulties arising from the fact that α‐olefin sulfonates are mixtures of hydroxyalkane sulfonates and alkene sulfonates. Each of these components of AOS was studied independently and found to follow a complicated thermal degradation path.We found that the thermal degradation of hydroxyalkane sulfonate is a base‐catalyzed process. At elevated temperatures, hydroxyalkane sulfonates are first converted into an intermediate which is still surface active before degrading further to a non‐surface active product by a second mechanism. The rate‐determining step of the degradation process was found not to involve a cleavage of the C‐S bond as observed for other types of sulfonates.Our work indicates that the first step of the thermal degradation of alkene sulfonates involves isomerization of double bonds followed by cleavage of the C‐S bond. The thermal degradation of alkene sulfonates is catalyzed by acids.

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Introduction Enhanced oil recovery studies have consistently demonstrated the need to mitigate gas channeling in processes involving use of gaseous substances (such as steam, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and air) to stimulate oil production. The use of foam to control the mobility of the gas was suggested thirty years ago, and earlier field tests indicated that significant benefit in oil production could be achieved using this concept. The use of foam to improve mobility control is based on the observation that most foams have great flow impeding characteristics and provide greater flow impedance in high permeability porous media than in low permeability media. Sibree was probably the first to report that froth has an apparent viscosity much higher than either of its constituents. He compared the rheological behavior of a froth to that of a coarse emulsion and attempted to relate apparent viscosity to the volume fraction of gas in the liquid. Study of the flow of foams through porous media with the objective of using foams as mobility-control agents for various EOR applications gas started in the nineteen sixties. Most of the early investigators regarded the flow of foam through porous media as plug flow. As such, both constituents of foam move as a body in the media. However, some investigators suggested that liquid moved through the porous media via the film network of the bubble while gas moved progressively through the system by breaking and reforming bubbles throughout the length of the flow path. Without considering the observation that the average diameter of the foam cell is generally much larger than the average pore size, the model of foam flowing through a porous medium was treated as if it were flow of bulk foam. As a result, studying foam rheology was a popular approach to the problem. It has been shown rather conclusively that, in some situations foam does behave as if it were a non-Newtonian fluid. Some of these investigators considered foam to be a pseudoplastic system while others described it as a plastic fluid. Our work shows that factors such as the texture of the foam (cell size and uniformity), ratio of cell size to pore size, and the quality of foam (volume % gas), are very important. In the first part of this work, foams of well defined quality and cell size were used to explore the fundamental mechanism governing the resistance to flow of foams in porous media. It A intended to demonstrate that the pressure required to move foam through a porous medium is a function of the interaction of a coving lamella with the stationary capillary wall and all the phenomena observed can be represented by a simple meniscus equation. Data obtained from measurements conducted are a single capillary can be related to the data obtained using the conventional sand packs when the dynamic surface tensions of the surfactant solutions are taken into consideration. It has previously been reported that sulfonates of alpha-olefins (AOS) are very effective for controlling the mobility of steam. The second phase of our work was directed toward the phase of our work was directed toward the evaluation of the effectiveness of AOS as a mobility-control agent for steam drive. With this in mind, most of our experiments were conducted with foams generated using AOS having different molecular weights and structures. Other types of sulfonate surfactants were included in some of our evaluations for comparative purposes. P. 301

The solution characteristics of the system linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS)/Ca++/builder were studied using a dynamic surface tension technique. The results showed that the rate of CA++/LAS interaction is slower than the CA++ binding rate of zeolite A. Consequently, zeolite A is effective in preventing precipitation of LAS by calcium ions. The data obtained from the study of Ca++ binding detergent builders on solubilization of Ca(LAS)2 showed that zeolite A was effective but the rate of solubilization was much slower than that for STPP. Incorporation of a small amount of phosphate with zeolite A in a detergent significantly increases the rate of solubilizing of Ca(LAS)2.