Molecular Dynamics Computational Study of Sustainable Green Surfactant for Application in Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery
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PROVIDER: S-EPMC11209909 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The primary objective of this study is to develop a novel experimental nanofluid based on surfactant-nanoparticle-brine tuning, subsequently evaluate its performance in the laboratory under reservoir conditions, then upscale the design for a field trial of the nanotechnology-enhanced surfactant injection process. Two different mixtures of commercial anionic surfactants (SA and SB) were characterized by their critical micelle concentration (CMC), density, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. Two types of commercial nanoparticles (CNA and CNB) were utilized, and they were characterized by SBET, FTIR spectra, hydrodynamic mean sizes (dp50), isoelectric points (pHIEP), and functional groups. The evaluation of both surfactant-nanoparticle systems demonstrated that the best performance was obtained with a total dissolved solid (TDS) of 0.75% with the SA surfactant and the CNA nanoparticles. A nanofluid formulation with 100 mg·L-1 of CNA provided suitable interfacial tension (IFT) values between 0.18 and 0.15 mN·m-1 for a surfactant dosage range of 750-1000 mg·L-1. Results obtained from adsorption tests indicated that the surfactant adsorption on the rock would be reduced by at least 40% under static and dynamic conditions due to nanoparticle addition. Moreover, during core flooding tests, it was observed that the recovery factor was increased by 22% for the nanofluid usage in contrast with a 17% increase with only the use of the surfactant. These results are related to the estimated capillary number of 3 × 10-5, 3 × 10-4, and 5 × 10-4 for the brine, the surfactant, and the nanofluid, respectively, as well as to the reduction in the surfactant adsorption on the rock which enhances the efficiency of the process. The field trial application was performed with the same nanofluid formulation in the two different injection patterns of a Colombian oil field and represented the first application worldwide of nanoparticles/nanofluids in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. The cumulative incremental oil production was nearly 30,035 Bbls for both injection patterns by May 19, 2020. The decline rate was estimated through an exponential model to be -0.104 month-1 before the intervention, to -0.016 month-1 after the nanofluid injection. The pilot was designed based on a production increment of 3.5%, which was successfully surpassed with this field test with an increment of 27.3%. This application is the first, worldwide, to demonstrate surfactant flooding assisted by nanotechnology in a chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) process in a low interfacial tension region.
| S-EPMC7466570 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Throughout the application of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), surfactant adsorption is considered the leading constraint on both the successful implementation and economic viability of the process. In this study, a comprehensive investigation on the adsorption behaviour of nonionic and anionic individual surfactants; namely, alkyl polyglucoside (APG) and alkyl ether carboxylate (AEC) was performed using static adsorption experiments, isotherm modelling using (Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips, and Temkin models), adsorption simulation using a state-of-the-art method, binary mixture prediction using the modified extended Langmuir (MEL) model, and artificial neural network (ANN) prediction. Static adsorption experiments revealed higher adsorption capacity of APG as compared to AEC, with sips being the most fitted model with R2 (0.9915 and 0.9926, for APG and AEC respectively). It was indicated that both monolayer and multilayer adsorption took place in a heterogeneous adsorption system with non-uniform surfactant molecules distribution, which was in remarkable agreement with the simulation results. The (APG/AEC) binary mixture prediction depicted contradictory results to the experimental individual behaviour, showing that AEC had more affinity to adsorb in competition with APG for the adsorption sites on the rock surface. The adopted ANN model showed good agreement with the experimental data and the simulated adsorption values for APG and AEC showed a decreasing trend as temperature increases. Simulating the impact of binary surfactant adsorption can provide a tremendous advantage of demonstrating the binary system behaviour with less experimental data. The utilization of ANN for such prediction procedure can minimize the experimental time, operating cost and give feasible predictions compared to other computational methods. The integrated workflow followed in this study is quite innovative as it has not been employed before for surfactant adsorption studies.
| S-EPMC7511199 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Aqueous surfactant-nanoparticle mixtures have received great attention recently for promoting a more sustainable and efficient enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process. However, colloidal stability under reservoir conditions is considered a great challenge. In addition, the way synergy operates in EOR is not clearly understood. This study aims to formulate a cost-effective surfactant-nanoparticle mixture in a formation brine for efficient EOR in calcite-rich oil reservoirs. For this, bare silica nanoparticles were covalently grafted using an epoxysilane and blended with two commercial surfactants, namely a zwitterionic alkyl hydroxysultaine (AHS) and a binary zwitterionic-nonionic (ZN) surfactant, for both additional steric stabilization and EOR. The effects of additives alone or their mixtures were examined at solid-fluid and fluid-fluid interfaces to explore their impact on EOR. The surfactant-nanoparticle blend often showed a pH-responsive behavior at solid-fluid and fluid-fluid interfaces with particles serving as carriers or surface activity improvers for surfactant resulting in different extents of rock wettability alteration and emulsification. In oil recovery tests, optimum surfactant concentrations were found to significantly increase crude oil recovery of formation brine by 36 ± 1% original oil in place (OOIP) in secondary spontaneous imbibition which was further enhanced by 14 ± 0.5% OOIP upon adding a low particle concentration (0.01 wt %). The surfactant-nanoparticle formulation was also efficient in producing residual crude oil in tertiary mode (6% OOIP additional oil recovery after formation brine). The oil recovery results disclosed a high dependence on the emulsification ability of the blends with AHS-particle dispersions producing more stable emulsions and thus more crude oil compared to that of ZN.
| S-EPMC11603775 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Green enhanced oil recovery (GEOR) is an environmentally friendly enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process involving the injection of green fluids to improve macroscopic and microscopic sweep efficiencies while boosting tertiary oil production. Carbon nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanotube (CNT), and carbon dots have gained interest for their superior ability to increase oil recovery. These particles have been successfully tested in EOR, although they are expensive and do not extend to GEOR. In addition, the application of carbon particles in the GEOR method is not well understood yet, requiring thorough documentation. The goals of this work are to develop carbon nanoparticles from biomass and explore their role in GEOR. The carbon nanoparticles were prepared from date leaves, which are inexpensive biomass, through pyrolysis and ball-milling methods. The synthesized carbon nanomaterials were characterized using the standard process. Three formulations of functionalized and non-functionalized date-leaf carbon nanoparticle (DLCNP) solutions were chosen for core floods based on phase behavior and interfacial tension (IFT) properties to examine their potential for smart water and green chemical flooding. The carboxylated DLCNP was mixed with distilled water in the first formulation to be tested for smart water flood in the sandstone core. After water flooding, this formulation recovered 9% incremental oil of the oil initially in place. In contrast, non-functionalized DLCNP formulated with (the biodegradable) surfactant alkyl polyglycoside and NaCl produced 18% more tertiary oil than the CNT. This work thus provides new green chemical agents and formulations for EOR applications so that oil can be produced more economically and sustainably.
| S-EPMC9029107 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study used an exogenous lipopeptide-producing Bacillus subtilis to strengthen the indigenous microbial enhanced oil recovery (IMEOR) process in a water-flooded reservoir in the laboratory. The microbial processes and driving mechanisms were investigated in terms of the changes in oil properties and the interplay between the exogenous B. subtilis and indigenous microbial populations. The exogenous B. subtilis is a lipopeptide producer, with a short growth cycle and no oil-degrading ability. The B. subtilis facilitates the IMEOR process through improving oil emulsification and accelerating microbial growth with oil as the carbon source. Microbial community studies using quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing revealed that the exogenous B. subtilis could live together with reservoir microbial populations, and did not exert an observable inhibitory effect on the indigenous microbial populations during nutrient stimulation. Core-flooding tests showed that the combined exogenous and indigenous microbial flooding increased oil displacement efficiency by 16.71%, compared with 7.59% in the control where only nutrients were added, demonstrating the application potential in enhanced oil recovery in water-flooded reservoirs, in particular, for reservoirs where IMEOR treatment cannot effectively improve oil recovery.
| S-EPMC4757698 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Chemicals such as anionic surfactants and polymers often contain groups that complex divalent ions such as Ca2+. The formation of divalent ion complexes can decrease emulsifying or viscosifying power and lead to adsorption or precipitation. This is particularly relevant in chemical enhanced oil recovery, where high viscosities and low interfacial tensions are required for mobility control and the formation of oil-water microemulsions, respectively. In this work, we use a Ca2+-sensitive dye to determine the Ca2+ concentration and Ca-complex formation constants in solutions containing complexing agents. This method can be used to rapidly screen the affinity of different chemicals to form Ca-complexes in low-salinity solutions. The complex formation constants can be implemented into chemical flooding simulators to investigate the interplay with mineral dissolution and cation exchange and model adsorption processes.
| S-EPMC7905941 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The combination of chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) and low salinity water (LSW) flooding is one of the most attractive enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. While several studies on CEOR have been performed to date, there still exists a lack of mechanistic understanding on the synergism between surfactant, alkali and LSW. This synergism, in terms of fluid-fluid interactions, is experimentally investigated in this study, and mechanistic understanding is gained through fluid analysis techniques. Two surfactants, one cationic and one anionic, namely an alkyltrimethylammonium bromide (C19TAB) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS), were tested, together with NaOH used as the alkali, diluted formation brine used as the LSW, and the crude oil was collected from an Iranian carbonate oil reservoir. Fluids were analyzed using pendant drop method for interfacial tension (IFT) measurement, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for determination of aqueous and oleic phase chemical interaction. The optimum concentration of LSW for IFT reduction was investigated to be 1000 ppm. Additionally, both surfactants reduced IFT significantly, from 28.86 mN/m to well below 0.80 mN/m, but in the presence of optimal alkali concentration the IFT dropped further to below 0.30 mN/m. IFT reduction by alkali was linked to the production of three different types of in situ anionic surfactants, while in the case of anionic and cationic surfactants, saponification reactions and the formation of the C19TAOH alcohol, respectively, were linked to IFT reduction. The critical micelle concentration and optimal alkali concentration when using cationic C19TAB were significantly lower than with the anionic surfactant; respectively: 335 vs 5000 ppm, and 500 vs 5000 ppm. However, it was found that SDBS was more compatible with NaOH than C19TAB, due to occurrence of alkali deposition with the latter beyond the optimal point.
| S-EPMC7689896 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The emulsions formed by conventional surfactants have poor stability in high temperature and high salinity reservoirs, which limits the fluidity control ability of emulsion flooding systems. Hydroxyl sulfobetaine surfactants have excellent emulsifying properties and can maintain good activity under high temperature and high salinity conditions. In this study, an emulsion synergistic-stabilized by hydroxyl sulfobetaine surfactant LHSB and SiO2 nanoparticles was reported for the first time, and the feasibility of its enhanced oil recovery was investigated. The results show that the stability, temperature and salt resistance of the emulsion were significantly improved after adding nanoparticles, which positively affected the exploitation of harsh reservoirs. The synergistic-stabilized mechanism between LHSB and SiO2 nanoparticles was revealed by the measurements of zeta potential, surface tension and contact angle. Moreover, core flooding experiments reflect the emulsion synergistic-stabilized by LHSB and SiO2 nanoparticles can effectively enhance oil recovery by 11.41%. This study provides an emulsion flooding system with excellent performance for enhanced oil recovery in harsh reservoirs.
| S-EPMC10450575 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A novel giant surfactant, APOSS-PS50, possessing good surface activity, and viscosifying and reinforcing ability as a foam stabilizer, was synthesized successfully to enhance the physical properties of foaming solutions and foam. APOSS-PS50 was widely distributed at the foam gas-liquid interface and adjacent liquid layers through diffusion and adsorption, obviously decreasing the surface tension and improving the foamability and stability of the foam. Furthermore, the aggregation of APOSS-PS50 in the foam films resulted in the formation of a self-assembled nano-sized network through supramolecular interactions (such as hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking, and van der Waals attraction), thus increasing the foam viscoelasticity, including its interfacial viscoelastic modulus and apparent viscosity. Meanwhile, from the sandpack flooding experiments, compared with HPAM/AOS (HPAM: partially hydrolyzed acrylamide and AOS: alpha olefin sulfonate), the differential pressure and final oil recovery after APOSS-PS50/AOS foam flooding increased by 23.5% and 23.2%, up to 2.68 MPa and 81.7%, respectively. In general, APOSS-PS50 significantly promoted the plugging, profile control and oil displacement performance of foam.
| S-EPMC9072561 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The promising experimental performance of surfactant blends encourages their use in recovering the large quantity of crude oil still remaining in carbonate reservoirs. Phase behavior studies were carried out in this work to propose a blend for practical application. To that aim, the surfactants dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium (AOT) and polyoxyethylene(8) octyl ether carboxylic acid (Akypo LF2) were mixed. A formulation consisting of 1 wt% of AOT50wt%/LF250wt% blend in synthetic sea water (SSW) led to a low value of interfacial tension with crude oil of 1.50·10-2 mN/m, and 0.42 mg/grock of dynamic adsorption. A moderate additional oil recovery (7.3% of the original oil in place) was achieved in a core flooding test. To improve this performance, the surface-active ionic liquid 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([C12mim]Br) was added to the system. The electrostatic interactions between the oppositely charged surfactants (AOT and [C12mim]Br) led to a higher surface activity. Thus, a formulation consisting of 0.8 wt% of AOT20.7wt%/[C12mim]Br25.3wt%/LF254wt% in SSW reduced the interfacial tension and surfactant adsorption achieved with the binary blend to 1.14 × 10-2 mN/m and 0.21 mg/grock, respectively. The additional oil recovery achieved with the blend containing the ionic liquid was 11.5% of the original oil in place, significantly improving the efficiency of the binary blend.
| S-EPMC9821681 | biostudies-literature