What is surfactant in EOR?
Surfactant EOR improves the wetability of porous rocks allowing water to flow through them faster displacing more oil. When introduced to an oil field the alkaline agent reacts with the oil, forming surfactants which reduce interfacial tension. This allows oil to pass through porous rock more effectively.
Is a surfactant a polymer?
Surfactants form micelles in solution above the critical micelle concentration (cmc). “Polymer surfactant” is a surfactant that consists of polymer both for head and tail groups (Fig. 1). They might be a block copolymer or graft copolymer.
What is polymer EOR?
4.4. Polymer flooding is an EOR method that uses polymer solutions to increase oil recovery by decreasing the water/oil mobility ratio by increasing the viscosity of the displacing water. In polymer flooding, a water-soluble polymer is added into the floodwater. This increases the viscosity of water.
What is the main difference in the application and effect of the surfactant flooding and polymer flooding?
3.2. Core Flooding Experiment
| Number | Polymer concentration | Viscosity, mPa⋅s |
|---|---|---|
| (3) | 1500 | 40 |
| (4) | 2000 | 51.64 |
| (5) | 1500 | 39.47 |
| (6) | 1500 | 38.79 |
Which is the most widely used type of surfactants in EOR?
Branched alkyl benzene sulfonate
Branched alkyl benzene sulfonate. C15-18 BABS/C16-18 BABS are the most common surfactants from this family that has been used in EOR studies. This family is classified as anionic surfactants with a similar behaviour to linear alkyl benzene sulfonate as explained earlier.
What is surfactant in chemistry?
Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension (or interfacial tension) between two liquids, between a gas and a liquid, or between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, or dispersants.
What are the two categories of polymers?
Polymers fall into two categories:
- thermosetting plastic or thermoset.
- thermoforming plastic or thermoplastic.
What are polymers and what is its purpose in chemical EOR?
Polymers play major role in the Enhanced Oil Recovery; they help extract up to 30% of the original oil in place. Polymers help increase the viscosity of the displacing liquid (water) to drive the displaced liquid (oil) to the production well.
What is polymer injection?
Polymers are long chain molecules composed of many repeated subunits with high molecular weight. When added to water, either as a solution or as powder, they increase the water viscosity. The more viscous polymer-water solution is injected into the reservoir for enhanced oil recovery.
Is surfactant toxic?
Surfactants can be split into two well-separated classes: toxic and mild. Ionic surfactants can be mild; non-ionic surfactants can be toxic.
What is surfactant purpose?
Function. The main functions of surfactant are as follows: (1) lowering surface tension at the air–liquid interface and thus preventing alveolar collapse at end-expiration, (2) interacting with and subsequent killing of pathogens or preventing their dissemination, and (3) modulating immune responses.
What are the main functions of surfactant EOR?
Surfactant EOR mechanisms The main functions of surfactants are to reduce interfacial tension and wettability alteration [3]. Surfactant EOR mechanisms are discussed separately according to these two functions. 2.1.
What are the advantages of surfactant-polymer ( SP ) flooding?
Surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding has advantages of both mobility control and increasing capillary number due to increased viscosity of displacement phase and reduced interfacial tension (IFT), which are key mechanisms of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in polymer flooding and surfactant flooding, respectively.
Can a non ionic surfactant be used for EOR?
• Non-ionic surfactants have not performed as well for EOR as anionic surfactants Surfactant Selection Criteria
How does polymer flooding reduce residual oil saturation?
Even though polymer flooding may reduce residual oil saturation [1], [2], a significant portion of oil will remain in the reservoirs. To produce the residual oil, surfactants have to be injected. Therefore, surfactant EOR is a fundamental method. This paper will provide a status of this EOR technology.