Design of CO₂-in-Water Foam Stabilized with Switchable Amine Surfactants at High Temperature in High-Salinity Brine and Effect of Oil

Abstract

The design of surfactants for CO2-in-water (C/W) foams in carbonate reservoirs above 100 °C has been limited by thermal instability of surfactants, surfactant adsorption to mineral surfaces, and challenges in generating and stabilizing the foams. Here, we have identified a diamine surfactant, C12–14N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2 (Duomeen CTM), with good thermal stability (>1 month at 135 °C), that stabilizes viscous C/W foam with an apparent viscosity of up to ∼35 cP at 120 °C in 22% total dissolved solid (TDS) brine. Strong foams with excessively high viscosity were reported to be generated with longer-tailed C16–18N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2 (Duomeen TTM) that formed a viscoelastic aqueous phase. Here, the tail length was shorter for C12–14N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2 and thus a viscoelastic aqueous phase was not formed, resulting in a weaker CO2 foam with a more appropriate viscosity for the proposed applications. Moreover, at the lowest superficial velocity studied (4 ft/day), the apparent viscosity for C12–14N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2 was ∼20 fold lower than that of C16–18N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2, consistent with the lower viscosity for the aqueous phase. Not only the foam viscosity with C12–14N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2 was high enough for CO2 mobility control in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) but also it was low enough to be more favorable with regard to the injection pressure than the excessive high flow resistance associated with C16–18N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2. In addition, viscous C/W foam was maintained at low fractions of dodecane (model oil) and broke in the presence of large fractions of dodecane, both of which are beneficial to EOR. The oil/water (O/W) emulsions formed with C12–14N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2 were unstable and broke in 30 min, and the O/W partition coefficient depended greatly on pH at 120 °C in 22% TDS brine. All of these factors suggest that the surfactant C12–14N­(CH3)­C3N­(CH3)2 is a good candidate for further evaluation and scale up for CO2 EOR, CO2 sequestration, and hydraulic fracturing at high salinities and temperatures.

Synergistic Effects between Anionic and Sulfobetaine Surfactants for Stabilization of Foams Tolerant to Crude Oil in Foam Flooding

“…On the other hand, foam flooding using conventional commercial surfactants has become another attractive technique and has been paid more attention recently (Amirmoshiri et al, 2018; Bashir et al, 2019; Chen et al, 2018; Da et al, 2018; Hosseini‐Nasab and Zitha, 2017; Hurtado et al, 2018; Jian et al, 2015; Lu et al, 2017; Manan et al, 2015; Pu et al, 2019; Rezvani et al, 2020; Risal et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2009, 2019; Xu et al, 2020; Yang et al, 2017; Yekeen et al, 2017; Zhu et al, 2004). Foam flooding greatly improved the efficiency of gas injection for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which suffers from problems such as gas segregation, viscous fingering, and gas channeling through high‐permeability zones so that poor sweep efficiencies were usually obtained (Da et al, 2018; Hosseini‐Nasab and Zitha, 2017; Xu et al, 2020; Zhu et al, 2004). When gas was dispersed in water as small bubbles stabilized by surfactants, the displacing fluid is changed from gas to foams, which display much higher apparent viscosity than gas and good plugging properties and reduce significantly the permeability of the gas phase inhibiting viscous fingering.…”

Space-Resolved OH Vibrational Spectra of the Hydration Shell around CO2

“…CO 2 –water systems are among the most frequently encountered fluid mixtures in and around the Earth [Duan and Zhang, 2006], where they govern geological, environmental, and biological processes that affect many aspects of our daily lives. This is reflected in intense R&D efforts taking place in, for example, the area of supercritical CO 2 , the design of “CO 2 -in-water” foams to improve oil extraction processes in the petroleum industry, , tentative developments of aqueous Na–CO 2 and Li–CO 2 battery systems , and in the vast area of carbon capture and sequestration in geological formations and ocean floor sediments. , An abundance of experimental and computational studies have been devoted to elucidating the thermodynamic properties, the solubility, and the equation of state of these systems. A summary of many of these efforts has been presented in the Introduction of a recent paper from the Paesani group.…”

A Novel Supercritical CO2 Foam System Stabilized With a Mixture of Zwitterionic Surfactant and Silica Nanoparticles for Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…In order to improve foam stability, different foaming agents including surfactants (Basheva et al, 1999; Dhanuka et al, 2006), nanoparticles (NPs) (Basheva et al, 1999; Stephanie et al, 2008; Worthen et al, 2014), and polymers (Basheva et al, 1999; Petkova et al, 2012; Kalyanaraman et al, 2016) have been incorporated into CO 2 foam. The apparent viscosity of SC-CO 2 foam stabilized with surfactants and polymers is significantly higher (by several orders of magnitude) than that of a pure gaseous foam (Da et al, 2018). However, the strength or solubility of surfactants and polymers starts to degrade under high temperatures and salinity, thereby resulting in poor foam stability.…”