Low interfacial tension and miscibility studies for surfactant tertiary enhanced oil recovery processes. Final report, December 1980-September 1981

Technical Report · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1982

OSTI ID:5374241

Miller, C A

The main purpose of this project is to develop an improved basic understanding of how ultralow interfacial tensions arise in oil-brine-surfactant systems. Such tensions must be achieved and maintained during tertiary oil recovery processes if they are to be successful. The effects of temperature and of divalent ion concentration on the structure of aqueous surfactant solutions have been determined. As temperature increases, the salinity range where liquid crystalline phases exist is narrowed. At sufficiently high temperatures the liquid crystal melts and only isotropic phases are observed. These are an aqueous phase and, when partial immiscibility of alcohol and brine occurs, an alcohol-rich phase as well. The effect of divalent ions on aqueous solution structure is basically the same as that of monovalent ions, but smaller quantities of divalent ions are needed to bring about the same phase changes. In the particular system studied addition of one mole of Ca/sup +2/ was equivalent to addition of about 11.5 moles of Na/sup +/. The model of drop size in microemulsions has been extended to include the effects of drop dispersion. A hard sphere model was used to describe dispersion effects. With dispersion, drop size is slightly smaller for both oil-continuous and water-continuous microemulsions than predicted by the previous analysis which considered film properties alone. Further work on the proposed scheme for reducing microemulsion sensitivity to salinity changes is included in an Appendix.

• Research Organization: Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (USA). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
• DOE Contract Number: AS19-79BC10007
• OSTI ID: 5374241
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC/10007-14; ON: DE82019822
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300 -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
023000* -- Petroleum-- Properties & Composition
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400301 -- Organic Chemistry-- Chemical & Physicochemical Properties-- (-1987)
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
BRINES
CALCIUM COMPOUNDS
CATIONS
CHARGED PARTICLES
COLLOIDS
CRYSTAL-PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
DISPERSIONS
EMULSIONS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
ESTERS
FLUID INJECTION
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
IONS
MICROEMULSION FLOODING
MICROEMULSIONS
MISCIBLE-PHASE DISPLACEMENT
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC SULFUR COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM SULFONATES
PHASE STUDIES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RECOVERY
RESERVOIR FLUIDS
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SOLUBILITY
SULFONATES
SULFONIC ACID ESTERS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
SURFACE TENSION
SURFACTANTS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE