Investigation of the Passiflora Plant as a Promising Natural Surfactant for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Insights into Crude Oil–Water–Rock Interaction
Saman Khosravi Magham, Jagar A. Ali, Abbas Khaksar Manshad, Pshtiwan T. Jaf, Buya S. Hisqel
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide In enhanced oil recovery (EOR), several chemicals are applied to improve oil recovery including surfactants and polymers. Nowadays, plant extracts as natural surfactants are used for the same purpose due to their environmentally friendly and low-cost manner. In this work, the extract of the Passiflora plant was used as a natural surfactant in EOR applications. After confirming the validity of the natural surfactant using TGA, FTIR, and H-NMR, EOR surfactant solutions were formulated at different concentrations (0.5–8 wt %) of the Passiflora extract. From the obtained results of conductivity, turbidity, and pH measurements, the optimal critical micelle concentration (CMC) was discovered to be 4 wt %. The minimum interfacial tension (IFT) of 13 mN/m was achieved under the influence of the surfactant solution at the CMC point. The same solution of the surfactant provided 55° as the lowest contact angle (CA) of the crude oil on the surface of the carbonate rock, which is water-wet. The optimal surfactant solution enabled to extract an additional 7.5% original oil in place (OOIP) from the rock plug with 12.35% porosity and 3.5 mD permeability.