Experimental investigations of SDS adsorption on the Algerian rock reservoir: chemical enhanced oil recovery case

Abstract

The adsorption of surfactant on reservoir rocks or sands is one of the main factors that can significantly reduce the effectiveness of surfactant flooding for light oil recovery. The present work consists of study of the interaction between the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and the characteristics of Hassi Messaoud rock established using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis and optical microscopy. Parametric study of the adsorption tests was carried out at a temperature between 25 and 80 °C. The conductivity method was used to measure the critical micellar concentration of the SDS surfactant in aqueous solutions. The adsorption data were adjusted using five isotherms and two kinetics of the anionic surfactant. The equilibrium conditions for crushed rock samples were obtained after 11 h of adsorption. According to the experimental results, the equilibrium data were well fitted by the Langmuir isotherm for sandstone sample at all temperatures. The pseudo-second-order model best describes the kinetics of the adsorption process. Furthermore, the adsorption process is exothermic. Several statistical error analyses were applied to evaluate the performance and accuracy of the proposed experiment. A systematic investigation is very useful for selecting an appropriate surfactant for enhanced oil recovery application and reservoir stimulation in the petroleum industry.