Static adsorption of anionic surfactant onto crushed Berea sandstone

Muhammad Rizwan Azam,Muhammad Mushtaq,Isa M Tan,Muhammad Nadeem,Lukman Ismail,Muhammad Sagir

doi:10.1007/s13202-013-0057-y

Abstract

Surfactant adsorption in porous media is one of the major criteria which decide the economic viability of surfactant flooding in chemical enhance oil recovery applications (CEOR). In this study, the static adsorption of a novel in-house synthesized anionic surfactant was investigated onto crushed Berea sandstone. The point of zero (PZC) charge for Berea sandstone and critical micelle concentration (CMC) of anionic surfactant are also reported in this paper. The investigated PZC for Berea core was at pH 8.0 and the maximum adsorption of anionic surfactant was 0.96 mg/g. Furthermore, the effects of alkali, salinity and temperature on static adsorption of anionic surfactant were investigated at variable conditions. It was concluded that the anionic surfactant performs better at higher pH, higher temperature and lower salt concentration. An effective control of all these parameters can lead to the situation which helps in minimizing the surfactant loss and improved economic efficiency of CEOR process.

Highlights

The term ‘‘surfactant’’ represents a long-chain molecule containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties
In this study we report the static adsorption of a novel in-house synthesized anionic surfactant onto crushed Berea sandstone
The adsorption of a novel in-house synthesized anionic surfactant at various conditions onto Berea sandstone was investigated in this study

Summary

Introduction

The term ‘‘surfactant’’ represents a long-chain molecule containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties. The applications of surfactants in petroleum industries are significant and diverse, especially in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes (Grigg et al 2004; Grigg and Mikhalin 2007). The phenomena by which surfactant molecules adsorb onto the solid surface from an aqueous solution involve single ions, ion exchange, ion pairing, hydrophobic bonding, p electrons polarization and dispersion forces. The surfactant adsorption is a complex process and it depends on various characteristics of aqueous solution such as pH, salinity, temperature, ionic strength, divalent ions and in addition the type, concentration and composition of the surfactants involved (Grigg and Bai 2004; Dang et al 2011; Lv et al 2011). The loss of surfactant in the reservoir results in the unfeasible and uneconomical chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) process (Grigg and Bai 2005)

Methods

Results

Conclusion