Studies on the physicochemical properties of synthesized tailor-made gemini surfactants for application in enhanced oil recovery

Pal, Nilanjan; Saxena, Neha

doi:10.1016/j.molliq.2018.03.037

Cited by 116 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In the past decades, gemini cationic surfactants containing ammonium headgroup have been extensively used for multiple oilfield applications, such as anti-corrosion in oilfield wells [1], fracturing fluid [2], micellar slug [3], foam generation [4,5], collecting and dispersing the spilled crude oil [6], reservoir stimulation [7] wettability modification [8], and enhanced oil recovery [9,10]. They possess important physicochemical activities including lower critical micelle concentration (CMC), higher interface/surface properties, good solubility, compatible with carbonate rocks, high thermal stability, and unique aggregation behavior as compared to their monomeric counterpart [5,[11][12][13]].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesis of Novel Ethoxylated Quaternary Ammonium Gemini Surfactants for Enhanced Oil Recovery Application

2019

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Two aspects are always considered in the design and development of new surfactants for oilfield application. One of them is that surfactant must be sufficiently stable at reservoir temperature and the other is the solubility of the surfactant in the injection water (usually seawater) and the formation brine. Most industrially applied surfactants undergo hydrolysis at elevated temperature and the presence of reservoir ions causes surfactant precipitation. In relevance to this, a novel series of quaternary ammonium gemini surfactants with different length of spacer group (C8, C10, and C12) was synthesized and characterized using FT-IR, 13C NMR, 1H NMR, and MALDI-TOF MS. The gemini surfactants were prepared by solvent-free amidation of glycolic acid ethoxylate lauryl ether with 3-(dimethylamino)-1-propylamine followed by reaction with dibromoalkane to obtain quaternary ammonium gemini surfactants. The gemini surfactants were examined by means of surface properties and thermal stabilities. The synthesized gemini surfactants showed excellent solubility in the formation brine, seawater, and deionized water without any precipitation for up to three months at 90 °C. Thermal gravimetric data revealed that all the gemini surfactants were decomposed above 227 °C, which is higher than the oilfield temperature (≥90 °C). The decrease in critical micelle concentration (CMC) and surface tension at CMC (γcmc) was detected by enhancing spacer length in the order C8 ˃ C10 ˃ C12 which suggested that the larger the spacer, the better the surface properties. Moreover, a further decrease in CMC and γcmc was noticed by enhancing temperature (30 °C ˃ 60 °C) and salinity (deionized water ˃ seawater). The current study provides a comprehensive investigation of quaternary ammonium gemini surfactants that can be further extended potentially to use as a suitable material for oilfield application.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesis of Novel Ethoxylated Quaternary Ammonium Gemini Surfactants for Enhanced Oil Recovery Application

2019

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“…Water‐soluble polymers are used to improve the oil/water mobility ratio (Malik et al, ; Shahzad Kamal and Sultan, ). Surfactants enhance oil recovery by reducing the IFT and improving the capillary number (Pal et al, ; Pal et al, ; Pal et al, ; Saxena et al, ). The residual trapped oil in reservoirs can be recovered by decreasing the IFT and improving the capillary number.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Polyoxyethylene Zwitterionic Surfactants for High‐Salinity High‐Temperature Reservoirs

Kamal

Hussain

Fogang

et al. 2019

J Surfact & Detergents

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Substantial efforts are underway to improve the recovery factor from existing oil reserves to meet the ever‐growing global oil demand. Surfactants are known to increase oil recovery through reducing interfacial tension (IFT) and/or altering the rock wettability. The selection of surfactants for high‐salinity high‐temperature oil fields is a challenging task owing to poor thermal stability, precipitation, and adsorption of surfactants on reservoir rocks. Sulfobetaine‐based polyoxyethylene zwitterionic surfactants have shown excellent thermal and surface properties. However, their solubility in high‐salinity brines becomes poor particularly with a long hydrophobic tail (>C17). Recently, we synthesized such types of surfactants by incorporating ethylene oxide (EO) units into the hydrophobic tail, which improved the solubility in formation water (213,734 ppm) and seawater (SW) (57,643 ppm). In this work, we investigated the IFT, thermal stability, rheological behavior, and foaming properties of two polyoxyethylene zwitterionic surfactants having different degrees of ethoxylation. Aging experiments exhibited excellent thermal stability and no change in the chemical structure was detected. The surfactant with lesser EO units (EASB‐1a) showed a lower IFT compared to the surfactant with higher EO units (EASB‐1b). Rheological studies revealed that the addition of both surfactants reduced the viscosity of the acrylamide copolymer. However, the effect of EASB‐1a was more prominent compared to that of EASB‐1b. The surfactant with a higher degree of ethoxylation showed lower adsorption compared to the surfactant with a lesser degree of ethoxylation. Both surfactants showed excellent foamability and foam stability compared to the commercial surfactants. Excellent thermal stability, water solubility under harsh reservoir conditions, foaming properties, and lower adsorption make them a suitable choice for high‐temperature, high‐salinity reservoirs.

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“…Due to the amphiphilic structure, the surfactant can effectively reduce the water/oil interfacial tension (IFT) and change the formation wettability, which are the basic mechanisms of surfactant flooding in chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) (Zhang et al, ). Focused on the properties of reservoir water (salinity, temperature, viscosity, and so on), many groups modified the surfactant structures to develop their performances in EOR (Ahmadi and Shadizadeh, ; Babu et al, ; Chaturvedi et al, ; Cui et al, ; Hezave et al, ; Jia et al, ; Kamal, ; Kumar and Mandal, , ; Nguele et al, ; Pal et al, ; Pillai et al, , ; Rodríguez‐Escontrela et al, , b; Saxena et al, ; Zendehboudi et al, ; Zheng et al, ; Zhou et al, , ). Cui et al synthesized zwitterionic surfactants with double long alkyl chains to achieve the optimal hydrophile–lipophile balance for the remarkable IFT reduction (Cui et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soto's and our group investigated the interfacial activity of surface‐active ionic liquids at the water/oil interface (Babu et al, ; Rodríguez‐Escontrela et al, ; Zhou et al, , ). Mandal et al evaluated the performances of various surfactants (anionic, nonionic, zwitterionic, and Gemini surfactants) for their potential application in EOR (Chaturvedi et al, ; Kumar and Mandal, , ; Pal et al, ; Pillai et al, , ; Saxena et al, ). Recently, a promising and facile approach to fabricate desired surfactants via noncovalent interactions was proposed in supramolecular chemistry (Mali et al, ; Zhang and Wang, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Divalent Salts on the Interfacial Activity of the Mixed Surfactants at the Water/Model Oil Interface

Jia

Han

et al. 2019

J Surfact & Detergents

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In our previous report, the mixed cationic/anionic surfactant system consisting of N‐dodecyl‐N‐methylpyrrolidinium bromide (L12) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) showed good interfacial tension (IFT) reduction of water/model oil (Vtoluene:V n‐decane = 1:1). In the present study, the effects of divalent salts (MgCl2 or CaCl2) on the interfacial activity were systematically evaluated. The additional Mg2+ ions greatly reduced the IFT to an ultralow value, whereas Ca2+ ions caused the generation of the precipitates and resulted in increased IFT values. The precipitates disappeared in binary divalent salt solutions, and the IFT values remained at a low level. Based on the valence, polarizability, and hydrated radius of the ions, we proposed a model to explain the abnormal changes. The effects of NaCl and temperature were investigated to further verify our proposed mechanism. Moreover, the additional divalent salts obviously enhanced the stability of L12/SDS stabilized emulsions.

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Studies on the physicochemical properties of synthesized tailor-made gemini surfactants for application in enhanced oil recovery

Cited by 116 publications

References 42 publications

Synthesis of Novel Ethoxylated Quaternary Ammonium Gemini Surfactants for Enhanced Oil Recovery Application

Synthesis of Novel Ethoxylated Quaternary Ammonium Gemini Surfactants for Enhanced Oil Recovery Application

Development of Polyoxyethylene Zwitterionic Surfactants for High‐Salinity High‐Temperature Reservoirs

Effects of Divalent Salts on the Interfacial Activity of the Mixed Surfactants at the Water/Model Oil Interface

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