Displacement of Petroleum from Sand Surfaces by Solutions of Polyoxyethylated Detergents

Adsorption of Polyoxyethylated Detergents of Quartz.

“…The adsorption on a weight basis, by which detergents are marketed, ceases to decrease at about this mole ratio. Furthermore, the general detersive ability and the efficiency of such detergents in displacing crude oil from sand surfaces are lower at the higher mole ratios of ethylene oxide (3,8).…”

“…The detergents were of the polyoxyethylated alkylphenol type and represented homologous series based on nonyland octylphenol in which the hydrophilic polyoxyethylene chains varied in length. Two of these series were described previously and were designated "Series II" and "Series III", respectively (3). Series II comprises Igepal CO-710 homologs (General Aniline and Film Corp., New York) and series III, Triton X-100 homologs (Rohm and Haas Co., Philadelphia).…”

“…Detergents of this type appear promising as additives to water injected into petroleum-producing formations to stimulate petroleum production. They have been investigated extensively for this specific application and for more general applications (3,4,(8)(9)(10). The surface activities (3, S), interfacial activities (4, 8), and critical micelle concentrations (7) of these detergents have been investigated recently.…”

Variables in the Centrifugal Testing of Petroleum Displacement by Detergent Solutions

“…The extremely large number of surfactants available necessitated development of a rapid method for determining their efficiency in the petroleum-sand system. A centrifugal method for testing this property of surfactants was described recently (5,6). As several industrial laboratories have begun to use this test to screen detergent formulations and to study oil-displacement phenomena, the test should be generalized so that the results of various laboratories can be correlated.…”

“…Detergents. The detergents used in these studies were nonionic polyoxyethylated alkyl phenols (S, 5). The detergent series, each based on an alkyl phenol and containing various mole ratios of ethylene oxide, were furnished by the Hercules Powder Co. (Series I), General Aniline and Film Corp. (Series II), and Rohm & Haas Co. (Series III) {5).…”