Experimental investigation of the effect of Vitagnus plant extract on enhanced oil recovery process using interfacial tension (IFT) reduction and wettability alteration mechanisms

Abstract

Surfactant flooding is a chemical enhanced oil recovery (cEOR) process wherein anionic, cationic, non-ionic, and amphoteric surfactants are injected into oil reservoirs to produce more hydrocarbon. These chemical and industrial agents might cause some economic and environmental challenges. Recently, injection of natural surfactants, as new environmentally friendly EOR agents, for improving oil recovery has been proposed by researchers. In this study, the extract of Vitagnus, a natural surfactant, was used to minimize the interfacial tension (IFT) and alter the rock wettability towards the strong water-wet system, thereby improving the oil recovery from the carbonate rock The conductivity, pH, and turbidity measurements were undertaken to identify the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant solutions prepared by mixing 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, and 7000 ppm of the Vitagnus extract and distilled water. The obtained experimental results reveal that the optimum CMC value of the used surfactant was 3000 ppm. At this CMC value, the IFT reduced from 29.5 to 5.28 mN/m, and the contact angle of the oil droplet on the surface of the carbonate rock decreased from 114° to 29°. Accordingly, during the tertiary process, oil recovery was improved from 44% to 54.6% OOIP (original oil in place) by injecting 2.25 PVs of the VIT3000 surfactant containing 3000 ppm of the plant extract.

Spontaneous Imbibition Oil Recovery by Natural Surfactant/Nanofluid: An Experimental and Theoretical Study

“…The thermal stability of the surfactant followed the decreasing trend more steeply, reaching 300 °C, where only less than 1% of the natural surfactant remained unchanged. This heavyweight loss, which is due to carbon bond breakdown at high temperatures [ 56 ], reveals that Azarboo is natural and extracted from plants [ 57 ]. In conclusion, TGA analysis confirms the thermal usability of the Azarboo surfactant for harsh-temperature EOR operations due to great mass maintenance at temperatures below 100 °C.…”

Insight into Nano-chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery from Carbonate Reservoirs Using Environmentally Friendly Nanomaterials

“…Figure illustrates the procedural steps of synthesizing SiO 2 /KCl/Xanthan NCs in a green way. − In this method, 100 g of dried leaves of the Euphorbia condylocarpa plant was mixed with 500 mL of distilled water for 30 min at 80 °C to produce the extract. To develop the silica NPs, 5 g of Na 2 SiO 3 was mixed with 100 mL of the collected extract for 10 h under the experimental condition of 10 pH and 80 °C.…”

“…The effect of silica NPs combined with xanthan gum on the wettability of carbonate rocks with different water saturations was studied by Soliman et al In our previous publications on the synthesis and application of nanocomposites in EOR applications, the effects of salinity, pressure, and temperature were investigated. − From the outcomes of these studies, it was concluded that temperature has a direct influence on the performance of nanomaterials in reducing the IFT and altering the wettability toward water-wet. However, pressure and salinity had an inverse impact on the NP performance for EOR applications. − The ultimate goal of this study was to synthesize KCl/SiO 2 /Xanthan NCs in a green way for EOR applications. The validity of the synthesized NCs was confirmed using scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analytical techniques.…”

“… 42 The effect of silica NPs combined with xanthan gum on the wettability of carbonate rocks with different water saturations was studied by Soliman et al 43 In our previous publications on the synthesis and application of nanocomposites in EOR applications, the effects of salinity, pressure, and temperature were investigated. 44 − 46 From the outcomes of these studies, it was concluded that temperature has a direct influence on the performance of nanomaterials in reducing the IFT and altering the wettability toward water-wet. However, pressure and salinity had an inverse impact on the NP performance for EOR applications.…”

Oil Recovery Performance by Surfactant Flooding: A Perspective on Multiscale Evaluation Methods

“…However, distilled water was used as the aqueous phase in all their experiments, which ignored the effect of salinity. Dashtaki et al 126 experimentally evaluated the extract of vitagnus as a natural surfactant for EOR applications. The materials used include 29°A PI crude oil from the Sarvestan oilfield in Iran, Arabian Gulf brine, and carbonate rock samples from the Asmari outcrop formation.…”