Integrating surfactant, alkali and nano-fluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery: A mechanistic experimental study of novel chemical combinations

Rezaei, Amin; Riazi, M.R.; Escrochi, Mehdi; Elhaei, Reza

doi:10.1016/j.molliq.2020.113106

Cited by 76 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…The presence of nanoparticles in surfactant dispersions positively affects the injected fluid viscosity, wettability alteration, and IFT maintenance and/or reduction [46]. Conventionally, during improved water injection with surfactants present, crude oil recovery is enhanced.…”

Section: Coreflooding Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results showed an IFT reduction of up to 3 mN•m −1 , which is in the low IFT region. Finally, Rezaei et al [46] evaluated silica nanoparticles in a CEOR process with an amphoteric surfactant, namely cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB). The IFT was reduced to 1 mN•m −1 at a nanoparticle dosage of 1000 mg•L −1 , and the OOIP recovery was improved up to 12.2%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design and Tuning of Nanofluids Applied to Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Based on the Surfactant–Nanoparticle–Brine Interaction: From Laboratory Experiments to Oil Field Application

et al. 2020

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The primary objective of this study is to develop a novel experimental nanofluid based on surfactant–nanoparticle–brine tuning, subsequently evaluate its performance in the laboratory under reservoir conditions, then upscale the design for a field trial of the nanotechnology-enhanced surfactant injection process. Two different mixtures of commercial anionic surfactants (SA and SB) were characterized by their critical micelle concentration (CMC), density, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. Two types of commercial nanoparticles (CNA and CNB) were utilized, and they were characterized by SBET, FTIR spectra, hydrodynamic mean sizes (dp50), isoelectric points (pHIEP), and functional groups. The evaluation of both surfactant–nanoparticle systems demonstrated that the best performance was obtained with a total dissolved solid (TDS) of 0.75% with the SA surfactant and the CNA nanoparticles. A nanofluid formulation with 100 mg·L−1 of CNA provided suitable interfacial tension (IFT) values between 0.18 and 0.15 mN·m−1 for a surfactant dosage range of 750–1000 mg·L−1. Results obtained from adsorption tests indicated that the surfactant adsorption on the rock would be reduced by at least 40% under static and dynamic conditions due to nanoparticle addition. Moreover, during core flooding tests, it was observed that the recovery factor was increased by 22% for the nanofluid usage in contrast with a 17% increase with only the use of the surfactant. These results are related to the estimated capillary number of 3 × 10−5, 3 × 10−4, and 5 × 10−4 for the brine, the surfactant, and the nanofluid, respectively, as well as to the reduction in the surfactant adsorption on the rock which enhances the efficiency of the process. The field trial application was performed with the same nanofluid formulation in the two different injection patterns of a Colombian oil field and represented the first application worldwide of nanoparticles/nanofluids in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. The cumulative incremental oil production was nearly 30,035 Bbls for both injection patterns by May 19, 2020. The decline rate was estimated through an exponential model to be −0.104 month−1 before the intervention, to −0.016 month−1 after the nanofluid injection. The pilot was designed based on a production increment of 3.5%, which was successfully surpassed with this field test with an increment of 27.3%. This application is the first, worldwide, to demonstrate surfactant flooding assisted by nanotechnology in a chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) process in a low interfacial tension region.

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Section: Coreflooding Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Tuning of Nanofluids Applied to Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Based on the Surfactant–Nanoparticle–Brine Interaction: From Laboratory Experiments to Oil Field Application

et al. 2020

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“…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].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Luan

Zhou

et al. 2022

Energies

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Nonionic–anionic surfactants are expected to be applied in chemical flooding due to their important properties such as ultralow IFT values, good salt tolerance, and no chromatographic separation in porous media. In this study, a new type of nonionic–anionic–hydrophobic group structure surfactant N,N-dihydroxyethylalkylamide carboxylate (EAMC) was synthesized. The synergistic effects between petroleum sulfonate (KPS) and EAMC in reducing interfacial tension (IFT) and emulsification properties were studied. The influences of salt, alkali and Ca2+ on the IFTs of surfactant solutions were also investigated. One-dimensional core flooding experiments were used to characterize the enhanced oil recovery capability of the KPS and EAMC mixed system. The experimental results show that both EAMC and KPS have high interfacial activity and can reduce IFTs to about 0.01 mN/m order of magnitude against decane at optimized concentrations. The area occupied by the hydrophilic group of EAMC on the interface is smaller than that of its own hydrophobic group. The interfacial film formed by EAMC alone is relatively loose. The IFTs of KPS containing different structure petroleum sulfonates is affected by the difference in the adsorption rate of petroleum sulfonates on the interface, which shows that both the dynamic and equilibrium interfacial tensions can have the lowest values. However, the IFTs of the EAMC solutions against crude oil can be reduced to ultralow values because the mixed tight adsorption film is formed by EAMC and crude oil fraction molecules with synergistic effect. On the other hand, the KPS molecule has a hydrophobic part with large size and no synergism with crude oil fractions can be observed in the solutions containing only KPS. The combination of EAMC and KPS shows synergistic effect, namely ultralow IFT values, good emulsification properties, high alkali tolerance, and good salt and Ca2+ tolerance during a wide percentage range of EAMC. The best formula of EAMC and KPS system can be applied for EOR after polymer flooding. The studies in this paper are helpful for the design and application of a chemical flooding formula with nonionic–anionic–hydrophobic group structure surfactants.

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“…The nanoparticle concentration increase lead to a primary increase and a subsequent reduction of the water-oil interfacial tension when the surfactant existed [23]. Rezaei et al revealed the impacts of alkali and nanoparticles on the water-oil interfacial tension and wetting alteration in the system containing surfactant [24]. Pichot et al found different effects of silica hydrophilic particles on the vegetable oil-water interfacial tension with the addition of W/O and O/W surfactants [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Surfactant and Hydrophobic Nanoparticles on the Crude Oil-Water Interfacial Tension

Jiang

Liu

et al. 2021

Energies

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Surfactants and nanoparticles play crucial roles in controlling the oil-water interfacial phenomenon. The natural oil-wet mineral nanoparticles that exist in crude oil could remarkably affect water-oil interfacial characteristics. Most of recent studies focus on the effect of hydrophilic nanoparticles dispersed in water on the oil-water interfacial phenomenon for the nanoparticle enhanced oil recovery. However, studies of the impact of the oil-wet nanoparticles existed in crude oil on interfacial behaviour are rare. In this study, the impacts of Span 80 surfactant and hydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles on the crude oil-water interfacial characteristics were studied by measuring the dynamic and equilibrium crude oil-water interfacial tensions. The results show the existence of nanoparticles leading to higher crude oil-water interfacial tensions than those without nanoparticles at low surfactant concentrations below 2000 ppm. At a Span 80 surfactant concentration of 1000 ppm, the increase of interfacial tension caused by nanoparticles is largest, which is around 8.6 mN/m. For high Span 80 surfactant concentrations, the less significant impact of nanoparticles on the crude oil-water interfacial tension is obtained. The effect of nanoparticle concentration on the crude oil-water interfacial tension was also investigated in the existence of surfactant. The data indicates the less significant influence of nanoparticles on the crude oil-water interfacial tension at high nanoparticle concentration in the presence of Span 80 surfactant. This study confirms the influences of nanoparticle-surfactant interaction and competitive surfactant molecule adsorption on the nanoparticles surfaces and the crude oil-water interface.

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Integrating surfactant, alkali and nano-fluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery: A mechanistic experimental study of novel chemical combinations

Cited by 76 publications

References 70 publications

Design and Tuning of Nanofluids Applied to Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Based on the Surfactant–Nanoparticle–Brine Interaction: From Laboratory Experiments to Oil Field Application

Design and Tuning of Nanofluids Applied to Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Based on the Surfactant–Nanoparticle–Brine Interaction: From Laboratory Experiments to Oil Field Application

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

Effects of Surfactant and Hydrophobic Nanoparticles on the Crude Oil-Water Interfacial Tension

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