Modelling Adsorption of Foam-Forming Surfactants on Heterogeneous Surfaces Using the Surface Excess Formalism

Abstract

Adsorption at the solid/liquid interface is detrimental to most enhanced oil recovery processes that make use of surfactants. This paper describes several extensions to a previously described surface excess model of adsorption in flow through porous media [7, 8]. It is shown that two parameters of the model, the monolayer coverages of surfactant and water, can be determined independently, thus reducing the number of adjustable parameters in the model from six to four. Experimental evidence suggests that the selectivity, previously assumed constant, should be a function of concentration. A functional form of selectivity that is derived from thermodynamic principles is incorporated into the model. Finally, adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces is discussed, and a simple form of surface heterogeneity (a bimodal distribution of selectivities) is incorporated into the model and its benefits in determining adsorption isotherms from core flood data are demonstrated.