Retention of Surfactant by Solid–Liquid Interaction and the Process of Improving Oil Recovery by Inducing Hydrophilic Particles
Rahul Saha, Ranjan Phukan
Abstract
Surfactants when interacted with reservoir rock surfaces undergo adsorption, which can intensively break the process by diluting surfactant formulation, thereby promoting additional economical constraints. Hence, a detailed adsorption behavior on a potentially identified non-ionic surfactant (Triton X-100) based on oil–aqueous interfacial properties was investigated. The adsorptions on three different reservoir cores at different temperatures and salinities to mimic commercial oil field adsorption characteristics were performed. The adsorption was dependent on the mineralogy composition in the order of calcium barium carbonate barytocalcite ≫ montmorillonite ≫ feldspar ≫ kaolinite and inversely proportional to quartz content, in addition to the surface area of the rock. The Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetics revealed best fitting with each retaining R 2 value of 0.99. The improvement in oil recovery mechanisms using hydrophilic nanoparticle-surfactant flooding and additional oil recoveries between 4 and 8% were observed.