Enhanced oil recovery by surfactant-enhanced volumetric sweep efficiency: First annual report for the period September 30, 1985-September 30, 1986. [Sandpacks]
Surfactant-enhanced volumetric sweep efficiency is a novel EOR method which utilizes precipitation/coacervation of surfactants to plug the most permeable regions of the reservoir, improving the efficiency of a waterflooding operation. This technique does not rely on reduction of interfacial tension between aqueous and oleic phases to enhance oil recovery. Therefore, even though surfactants are involved, this new technique is not a substitute or improvement on classical surfactant flooding; however, it has the potantial to compete with polymer flooding as an alternative sweep efficiency improvement method. In surfactant-enhanced volumetric sweep efficiency, a slug containing one kind of surfactant is injected into the reservoir, followed by a brine spacer. This is followed by injection of a second kind of surfactant which has lower adsorption than the first surfactant used. Anionic and cationic surfactants are one possible combination for this application. These may form either a precipitate or a coacervate upon mixing. Phase boundaries for some specific systems of this type have been determined over a wide range of conditions and a model developed to describe this behavior. Another possibility is the use of nonionic surfactants, which may form coacervate under proper conditions. The adsorption behavior of mixtures of anionic and nonionic surfactants was measured to aid in modeling the chromatographic effects with these surfactants in the reservoir. Studies with sandpacks of different permeabilities in parallel configuration using mixtures of anionic and cationic surfactants have demonstrated the capability of this method to reduce flow rates through a more permeable sandpack more than that through a less permeable sandpack. 4 refs., 23 figs., 8 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Oklahoma Univ., Norman (USA). School of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC19-85BC10845
- OSTI ID:
- 6571058
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/BC/10845-5; ON: DE87001241
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products. Original copy available until stock is exhausted
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
OIL WELLS
WATERFLOODING
SAND
PERMEABILITY
SURFACTANTS
ADSORPTION
PRECIPITATION
ADDITIVES
SWEEP EFFICIENCY
ANIONS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CATIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
CHARGED PARTICLES
DATA
FLUID INJECTION
INFORMATION
IONS
NUMERICAL DATA
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SORPTION
WELLS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production