Effect of CO2 on the interfacial tension and swelling of crude oil during carbonated water flooding

Abstract

Since the influence of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the dynamic interfacial tension of crude oil and aqueous solutions at the elevated temperatures and pressures is an important issue, this investigation is aimed to measure the IFT of crude oil/water, CO2, and carbonated water. The measured values reveal that the IFTs of crude oil/CO2 are decreased through the first interval, while a gradual and continuous reduction in IFT is obtained at the second interval. Although both intercepts and slopes of the first interval lines are more than the second interval for all the studied temperatures, they show a similar trend as a function of temperature. The used vanishing IFT method measurement reveals that the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), first contact miscibility pressure, and intersection point (where the slopes of the linear curves change) of two linear equations have a linear increasing trend as temperature changes. However, this trend was not observed for the aqueous solution saturated with CO2 (i.e., carbonated water) which can be related to the difference between liquid- and gas-phase behavior as well as the formation of carbonic acid in the carbonated water process. IFT values reduced from 18.6 mN/m (@ pH = 8) to 0.3 mN/m (@ pH = 14) with an increase in pH of the aqueous solution, while miscibility conditions can be obtained for CO2 cases at pressures higher than the MMP points. Considerably higher IFT values were measured in the presence of water and carbonated water in the range of 9.1–17.5 mN/m and 12.2–17.4 mN/m, respectively. The most important feature of the CW process can be the swelling factor of crude oil due to the fact that the oil swelling of up to 40% was achieved at elevated temperature (75 °C) and pressure (4500 psi) after only1600 s.