Mechanistic Investigation of LSW/Surfactant/Alkali Synergism for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Fluid-Fluid Interactions

Ali Esfandiarian; Amin Azdarpour; Rafael M Santos; Erfan Mohammadian; Hossein Hamidi; Milad Sedaghat; Parham B Dehkordi

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c04464

Mechanistic Investigation of LSW/Surfactant/Alkali Synergism for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Fluid-Fluid Interactions

ACS Omega. 2020 Nov 13;5(46):30059-30072. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c04464. eCollection 2020 Nov 24.

Authors

Ali Esfandiarian^{1

2}, Amin Azdarpour¹, Rafael M Santos³, Erfan Mohammadian⁴, Hossein Hamidi⁵, Milad Sedaghat^{1

2}, Parham B Dehkordi⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Petroleum Engineering, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran.
² Department of Petroleum Engineering, Fars Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran.
³ School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph N1G 2W1, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Cyprus International University, via Mersin 10, Haspolat-Nicosia 99258, Northern Cyprus.
⁵ School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, U.K.
⁶ Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, via Lambruschini 4, Milan 20156, Italy.

Abstract

The combination of chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) and low salinity water (LSW) flooding is one of the most attractive enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. While several studies on CEOR have been performed to date, there still exists a lack of mechanistic understanding on the synergism between surfactant, alkali and LSW. This synergism, in terms of fluid-fluid interactions, is experimentally investigated in this study, and mechanistic understanding is gained through fluid analysis techniques. Two surfactants, one cationic and one anionic, namely an alkyltrimethylammonium bromide (C₁₉TAB) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS), were tested, together with NaOH used as the alkali, diluted formation brine used as the LSW, and the crude oil was collected from an Iranian carbonate oil reservoir. Fluids were analyzed using pendant drop method for interfacial tension (IFT) measurement, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for determination of aqueous and oleic phase chemical interaction. The optimum concentration of LSW for IFT reduction was investigated to be 1000 ppm. Additionally, both surfactants reduced IFT significantly, from 28.86 mN/m to well below 0.80 mN/m, but in the presence of optimal alkali concentration the IFT dropped further to below 0.30 mN/m. IFT reduction by alkali was linked to the production of three different types of in situ anionic surfactants, while in the case of anionic and cationic surfactants, saponification reactions and the formation of the C₁₉TAOH alcohol, respectively, were linked to IFT reduction. The critical micelle concentration and optimal alkali concentration when using cationic C₁₉TAB were significantly lower than with the anionic surfactant; respectively: 335 vs 5000 ppm, and 500 vs 5000 ppm. However, it was found that SDBS was more compatible with NaOH than C₁₉TAB, due to occurrence of alkali deposition with the latter beyond the optimal point.