New surfactant mixtures for fine foams with slowed drainage

Abstract

We form and investigate foams stabilized by a triple surfactant mixture containing a nonionic alkyl polyglucoside (APG) in addition to the combination of ionic sodium lauryldioxyethylene sulphate (SLES) and zwitterionic cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) surfactants. APG improves the surfactants compatibility at alkaline pH. The addition of a readily biodegradable chelating agent methylglycinediacetic acid (MGDA) in the mixture contributes further for the excellent performance even in very hard water. Foam properties are analyzed and compared to those of the single components and to the binary mixture without APG. Foam drainage is successfully controlled by introducing additives suitable for the alkaline conditions: fatty alcohol and/or hydrophobically modified starch. Systematic model experiments are performed to characterize the surface tension and dilatational rheology, and thin films drainage. Slowed foam and thin films drainage is confirmed to correlate with the increased surface visco-elasticity in the presence of fatty alcohols. Temperature impact on the surface properties is used for fine tuning of the foam drainage.

Surface phase transitions in foams and emulsions

“…Marinova et al [46] applied this approach to even more complex mixtures of surfactants, anionic SLES + nonionic APG + zwitterionic CAPB. The addition of C12OH was found to decelerate the rate of water drainage from the respective foams at high salt concentration and low temperature.…”

Excellent condensate and salt‐resistant foam by anionic‐zwitterionic‐cationic Gemini surfactants compounds for gas well deliquification

“…Based on the balance of the stability and volume of the foam stabilized by the LSS/C 16 AGB/ C 12 AGB/C 16 APB mixture, the optimized C 16 APB concentration was considered to be 5 mM, yielding an optimized LSS/C 16 AGB/C 12 AGB/C 16 APB molar ratio of 5:4:1:5. As a zwitterionic surfactant, the C 16 APB favors the stability of the foam, which has been confirmed by many researchers (Golemanov et al, 2008;Marinova et al, 2017). However, each hydrocarbon tail of the C 16 APB contains 16 carbon atoms, which makes them more oil-soluble and reduces the mixture's tolerances against the condensate that may be encountered in the downhole operation.…”

Surfactant mixtures: A short review

“…The viscoelastic nature of the air‐water interface can be changed significantly with the use of mixtures (Arabadzhieva et al, 2020; Danov et al, 2004; Marinova et al, 2017; Song et al, 2015). The dilatational (or dilatational) modulus increases with an increase in excess surface concentration, so mixtures with more favorable interactions lead to higher dilatational moduli.…”