A Systematic Study to Assess Displacement Performance of a Naturally-Derived Surfactant in Flow Porous Systems

Abstract

For the first time, the present work assesses the feasibility of using Korean red ginseng root extract, a non-ionic surfactant, for the purposes of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The surfactant is characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. Pendant drop and sessile drop techniques are employed to study the oil–water interfacial tension (IFT) and wettability nature of the sandstone rock, respectively. In addition, oil recovery enhancement is investigated using micromodel and core floods. In the salt-free system, IFT measurements indicate that the surfactant carries a critical micelle concentration of 5 g/L. In a saline medium (up to 50 g/L), the addition of a surfactant with different concentrations leads to an IFT reduction of 47.28–84.21%. In a constant surfactant concentration, a contact angle reduction is observed in the range of 5.61–9.30°, depending on salinity rate, revealing a wettability alteration toward more water-wet. Surfactant flooding in the glass micromodel provides a more uniform sweeping, which leads to an oil recovery enhancement of 3.02–11.19%, depending on the extent of salinity. An optimal salt concentration equal to 30 g/L can be recognized according to the results of previous tests. Surfactant flooding (10 g/L) in optimal salt concentration achieves an additional oil recovery of 7.52% after conventional water flooding.

Review on Potential Application of Saponin-Based Natural Surfactants for Green Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: Perspectives and Progresses

“…There are numerous reports on improved oil recovery from 29,32,33,50,72,109,130,136,137,141,143,144 SBNS and SBNS-hybrid flooding contribute to incremental oil recovery by 6.223% to 56% of OOIP, which is analogous to that attained by synthetic surfactants (Figure 27). In sandstone samples, SBNSs led to an oil recovery ranging from 7.52% to 36% after waterflooding, while in carbonate rocks, 6.23% to 56% of recoverable oil was produced after waterflooding.…”

“…Surfactant flooding lowers the IFT at the oil–aqueous interface, thereby promoting the displacement of trapped oil and modifying the rock wettability from oil-wet to water-wet, as explained in previous sections of this study. There are numerous reports on improved oil recovery from SBNS-flooding-related research. ,,,,,,,,,,, …”

“…As such, the study of this phenomenon is imperative in chemical EOR studies, such as SBNS flooding . The evaluation of the salt tolerance of various SBNSs and its impact on SBNS performance in EOR processes is consistently evaluated in most studies. ,,,, IFT, adsorption of surfactant on surfaces of porous media, and contact angle are affected by the salinity of the surfactant solution. A declining trend is observed between SBNS adsorption and salinity (refer to Section ).…”

“…Similar findings have been reported in other studies. 40,141 The excess surface concentration also explains the impact of salinity on IFT. Excess surface concentration is the difference between the ion concentration at the interface and that in the solution.…”

Study on the Synergistic Effects between Petroleum Sulfonate and a Nonionic–Anionic Surfactant for Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…Many researchers have focused on the properties of PS and co-surfactants, with results demonstrating that a complex system can enhance the performance of PS [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Anionic surfactants with a nonionic hydrophilic group, a so called nonionic-anionic surfactant, such as fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether carboxylate (AEC) and sulfonate (AES), are good surfactants that have been widely studied for surface activity, foaming capability, emulsifying properties, wettability change and their performance in decreasing the IFT between oil and water [21][22][23][24][25][26]. The chemical structure of AEC contains two hydrophilic groups, which enables an ultralow IFT value, and better salt resistance and compatibility than traditional surfactants [27,28].…”