Evaluation of mixed surfactants for improved chemical flooding
Phase behavior studies were conducted using combinations of a primary surfactant component and several ethoxylated surfactants. The objective of the study is to evaluate combinations of surfactants, anionic-nonionic and anionic-anionic mixtures, that would yield favorable phase behavior and solubilization capacity. The dependence of the solution behavior on the additive surfactant structure, surfactant type, oil, surfactant proportion, salinity, HLB, and temperature was observed. The results showed that the ethoxylated surfactants can improve the solution behavior of the overall system. The increase in optimum salinity range of these solutions corresponded to an increase in the degree of ethoxylation of additive surfactant, up to a certain limit. The nonionic surfactant additives yielded much higher salinities compared to the results from the ethoxylated anionics tested. The proportion of surfactant component in solution was critical in achieving a balance between the solubilization capacity and the enhancement in the system`s salinity tolerance. Some combinations of these types of surfactants showed improved solution behavior with favorable solubilization capacity. The phase inversion temperature (PIT) method has been shown to be a relatively fast method for screening candidate surfactant systems. Comparisons were made using both the conventional salinity scan and the PIT method on selected chemical systems. The results showed good agreement between the salinity regions determined using both methods. A difference in the dependence of optimal salinity on HLB was observed for the different nonionics tested. The linear alkyl alcohol ethoxylates exhibited a behavior distinct from the dialkyl phenols at similar HLB levels with and without the primary sulfonate component in the solution. Other experiments performed at NIPER have shown that surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding has good potential for the recovery of oil from Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 3 (NPR No. 3).
- Research Organization:
- National Inst. for Petroleum and Energy Research, Bartlesville, OK (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC22-83FE60149
- OSTI ID:
- 10130743
- Report Number(s):
- NIPER-631; ON: DE93000117
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Feb 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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