Purpose Application of foam in enhanced oil recovery requires a production of foam that is strong and stable enough to withstand a long period. There are numerous factors that may affect the performance of foam, among which is temperature. Therefore, this study aims to observe the foam performance at different temperature by evaluating the foamability and the stability of the foam. Design/methodology/approach In this study, bulk foam test using FoamScan was conducted to examine the effect of temperature on foam in the presence of crude oil. Nitrogen gas was sparged through the mixture of crude oil, an in-house developed surfactant, and sodium chloride solution as the brine at different temperatures to produce foam at a certain height. The crude oil was extracted from an oilfield in East Malaysia and the in-house developed surfactant was a mixture of amphoteric and anionic surfactants. A camera continuously recorded the height of foam during the generation and the collapse of the foam. The foamability and foam stability properties of each sample were taken as the indicators for foam performance. Furthermore, the entering, spreading and bridging analysis was run to observe the effect of the presence of crude oil on foam performance. Findings In general, the higher the temperature, the less stable the foam is. As the stability of foam is associated with the rate of liquid drainage, it was observed that as temperature increases, the rate of liquid drainage also increases. On the other hand, the entering, spreading and bridging analysis shows that there is entering of oil droplet happening on the interface of foam film that may promote the rupture of the foam film even more. Originality/value It was found that the temperature has a small impact on foamability, whereas the foam stability was significantly affected by the temperature. Therefore, it can be concluded that foamability is not necessarily interrelated to foam stability, contradicting to the findings of few authors.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of wax, calcites and clay on the stability of petroleum emulsions. It proposes a proxy model that takes into cognizance the presence of solids other than asphaltene and resin. This study aims to investigate the combined effects of these solids on the stability of emulsions and show their relevance or otherwise in the creation of petroleum emulsions. Design/methodology/approach This paper used synthetic emulsions based on a response surface methodology using different weight concentrations of wax, calcites and clay. A Box–Behnken design model was adopted and the effects of the different variables on emulsion stability were analyzed. The conventional visual observation (batch testing) was augmented with a more robust technique of studying emulsion stability (Turbiscan) based on light backscattering or transmission. Analysis of variance and other statistics were used to analyze the results. Findings The paper makes an available proxy model that can predict the stability of petroleum emulsions in the presence of wax, calcites and clays. The findings suggest that in the presence of significant amount of wax (0.3 Wt.%), the presence of relatively lower concentration of clay (0.1 Wt.%) produces very stable petroleum emulsions. The results show that the most stable emulsion is obtained when significant amount of wax exists in the continuous phase and that a concentration of calcites more than wax (in a ratio of at least 2:1) produces an emulsion that separates very fast, indicating low stability. Research limitations/implications Due to the variations in the amount of asphaltene and resins in crude oils, the proxy model cannot generally predict the stability of every emulsion that forms in the presence of these solids. To have a more general model, it should include asphaltene/resin. This can be tested further. Practical implications This paper provides useful information to the oil industry, especially where formation of severely stable emulsion is a problem. It also establishes the relationship that exists between solids in emulsion stabilization. Originality/value This paper satisfies a demand on the effects of other surface-active materials in addition to asphaltene/resin in stabilizing petroleum emulsions.