Surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. Quarterly report, January 1--March 31, 1994

Technical Report · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10160609· OSTI ID:10160609

Wasan, D T

The overall objective of this project is to develop a very cost-effective method for formulating a successful surfactant-enhanced alkaline flood by appropriately choosing mixed alkalis which form inexpensive buffers to obtain the desired pH (between 8.5 and 12.0) for ultimate spontaneous emulsification and ultra-low tension. In addition, the novel concept of pH gradient design to optimize flood water conditions will be tested. Last quarter we investigated the phase behavior and the regions where in the middle phase occurs. The optimum phase was found to go through a maximum with pH, sodium concentration and surfactant concentration. The optimum pH is about 12.0 to 13.5, the optimum sodium concentration is about 0.513 mol/liter, and the optimum surfactant concentration is about 0.2%. The effect of surfactant type was also investigated. Petrostep B-105 was found to give the most middle phase production. This quarter, we investigated the contact angle of Long Beach oil, Adena oil, and a model oil on a solid glass surface in contact with an aqueous alkaline solution both with and without added preformed surfactant. The contact angle with Long Beach and Adena oils showed oil-wet conditions, whereas the model oil showed both oil-wet and water-wet conditions depending on the pH of the aqueous phase. The addition of surfactant to the alkaline solution resulted in making the system less oil-wet. Spreading of the oil on the glass surface was observed in all three systems investigated.

• Research Organization: Illinois Inst. of Tech., Chicago, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC22-92BC14883
• OSTI ID: 10160609
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC/14883-7; ON: DE94013912; BR: AC1510100
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: [1994]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
OIL WELLS
CAUSTIC FLOODING
DISPLACEMENT FLUIDS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
PROGRESS REPORT
PH VALUE
SODIUM HYDROXIDES
SURFACTANTS
ACID CARBONATES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SODIUM CHLORIDES
MIXTURES
SURFACE TENSION
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
PETROLEUM
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
020300
400201
DRILLING AND PRODUCTION
CHEMICAL AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES