Surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding with weak alkalis
The objective of Project BE4B in FY90 was to develop cost-effective and efficient chemical flooding formulations using surfactant-enhanced, lower pH (weak) alkaline chemical systems. Chemical systems were studied that mitigate the deleterious effects of divalent ions. The experiments were conducted with carbonate mixtures and carbonate/phosphate mixtures of pH 10.5, where most of the phosphate ions exist as the monohydrogen phosphate species. Orthophosphate did not further reduce the deleterious effect of divalent ions on interfacial tension behavior in carbonate solutions, where the deleterious effect of the divalent ions is already very low. When added to a carbonate mixture, orthophosphate did substantially reduce the adsorption of an atomic surfactant, which was an expected result; however, there was no correlation between the amount of reduction and the divalent ion levels. For acidic oils, a variety of surfactants are available commercially that have potential for use between pH 8.3 and pH 9.5. Several of these surfactants were tested with oil from Wilmington (CA) field and found to be suitable for use in that field. Two low-acid crude oils, with acid numbers of 0.01 and 0.27 mg KOH/g of oil, were studied. It was shown that surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding does have merit for use with these low-acid crude oils. However, each low-acid oil tested was found to behave differently, and it was concluded that the applicability of the method must be experimentally determined for any given low-acid crude oil. 19 refs., 10 figs. 4 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Bartlesville, OK (United States). National Inst. for Petroleum and Energy Research (NIPER)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC22-83FE60149
- OSTI ID:
- 6089128
- Report Number(s):
- NIPER-507; ON: DE91002227
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
CAUSTIC FLOODING
ADDITIVES
OIL WELLS
SURFACTANTS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
ACID NEUTRALIZING CAPACITY
API GRAVITY
CALIFORNIA
CARBONATES
EMULSIONS
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FIELD TESTS
INTERFACES
KANSAS
MASS TRANSFER
MIXTURES
PETROLEUM
PH VALUE
PHASE STUDIES
PHOSPHATES
RESERVOIR TEMPERATURE
SULFONATES
SURFACE TENSION
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CHEMISTRY
COLLOIDS
DENSITY
DISPERSIONS
ENERGY SOURCES
FEDERAL REGION IX
FEDERAL REGION VII
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC SULFUR COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RECOVERY
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TESTING
USA
WATER CHEMISTRY
WATERFLOODING
WELLS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production