Ultralow Interfacial Tension Research Articles

New sulfonate Gemini surfactants: synthesis and evaluation for enhanced oil recovery applications

In this work, a series of new sulfonate Gemini surfactants (abbreviated as m-3-m) were studied as an attempt to develop a single surfactant that can effectively reduce the oil-water interfacial tension to ultralow values. The novel surfactants were synthesized and characterized by 1HNMR and 13CNMR spectroscopies. The surface activeness of those surfactants at the air-water interface and thermodynamic properties in the bulk aqueous phase were investigated. The oil-water interfacial tension, viscous and viscoelastic properties of solutions were studied. The results showed that the novel surfactants exhibit fascinating surface activeness and low values of CMC; spontaneously formed micelles and adsorbed at the air-water interface. They can substantially reduce the oil-water interfacial tension to ultralow values () when the surfactant concentration is less than 0.5 wt%. The surfactants possess attractive viscous and viscoelastic properties towards EOR applications through flooding methods. In accordance with the experimental studies, the surfactants are promising in formulating fluid systems with ultralow interfacial tension.

Ultralow-Interfacial-Tension Foam-Injection Strategy in High-Temperature Ultrahigh-Salinity Fractured Oil-Wet Carbonate Reservoirs

Summary Oil recovery in many carbonate reservoirs is challenging because of unfavorable conditions, such as oil–wet surface wettability, high reservoir heterogeneity, and high brine salinity. We present the feasibility and injection–strategy investigation of ultralow–interfacial–tension (IFT) foam in a high–temperature (greater than 80°C), ultrahigh–formation–salinity [greater than 23% total dissolved solids (TDS)] fractured oil–wet carbonate reservoir. Because a salinity gradient is generated between injection seawater (SW) (4.2% TDS) and formation brine (FB) (23% TDS), a frontal–dilution map was created to simulate frontal–displacement processes and thereafter it was used to optimize surfactant formulations. IFT measurements and bulk–foam tests were also conducted to study the salinity–gradient effect on the performance of ultralow–IFT foam. Ultralow–IFT foam–injection strategies were investigated through a series of coreflood experiments in both homogeneous and fractured oil–wet core systems with initial oil/brine two–phase saturation. The representative fractured system included a well–defined fracture by splitting the core sample lengthwise. A controllable initial oil/brine saturation in the matrix can be achieved by closing the fracture with a rubber sheet at high confining pressure. The surfactant formulation achieved ultralow IFT (magnitude of 10−2 to 10−3 mN/m) with the crude oil at the displacement front and good foamability at underoptimal conditions. Both ultralow–IFT and foamability properties were found to be sensitive to the salinity gradient. Ultralow–IFT foam flooding achieved more than 50% incremental oil recovery compared with waterflooding in fractured oil–wet systems because of the selective diversion of ultralow–IFT foam. This effect resulted in a crossflow near the foam front, with surfactant solution (or weak foam) primarily diverted from the fracture into the matrix before the foam front, and oil/high–salinity brine flowing back to the fracture ahead of the front. The crossflow of oil/high–salinity brine from the matrix to the fracture was found to create challenges for foam propagation in the fractured system by forming Winsor II conditions near the foam front and hence killing the existing foam. It is important to note that Winsor II conditions should be avoided in the ultralow–IFT foam process to ensure good foam propagation and high oil–recovery efficiency. Results in this work contributed to demonstrating the technical feasibility of ultralow–IFT foam in high–temperature, ultrahigh–salinity fractured oil–wet carbonate reservoirs and investigated the injection strategy to enhance the low–IFT foam performance. The ultralow–IFT formulation helped to mobilize the residual oil for better displacement efficiency and reduce the unfavorable capillary entry pressure for better sweep efficiency. The selective diversion of foam makes it a good candidate for a mobility–control agent in a fractured system for better sweep efficiency.

Propagation of Surfactant‐Dispersed Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes in Porous Media

AbstractUnderstanding the transport of carbon nanotubes in porous media is essential to their applications in subsurface reservoirs, e.g., delivering catalysts or chemicals to targeted formations. In this study, a series of laboratory experiments are conducted to explore the transport of surfactant‐dispersed multiwalled nanotubes (MWNT) in different porous media in flow‐through columns at elevated electrolyte levels. Noncovalent bonding of ethoxylated alcohols adsorbed on the MWNT surface provides them with outstanding dispersion stability and excellent transport properties in a crushed‐limestone sand pack. Superior transport performance in silica sand is obtained with binary nonionic–anionic surfactant formulations, which provide both steric repulsion and electrostatic repulsion between nanoparticle–nanoparticle and nanoparticle–sand surface. The mobility of MWNT suspensions are further investigated in the exposure to multiphase flow, e.g., with residual oil present, or coinjected with air into the sand pack. Coinjecting surfactant‐dispersed MWNT suspensions with air (i.e., MWNT‐stabilized foams) has hardly any impact on their propagation; retention in the sand pack remains quite low. With the presence of oil in the sand pack, the transport of MWNT suspensions is highly dependent on the type of surfactants used as the dispersant. For surfactants that achieved modest interfacial tension (IFT) reduction, the injected MWNT suspension bypasses the oil phase, and little impact on retention is observed. When the dispersant surfactant is also adjusted for an ultralow IFT condition, greater MWNT retention in the porous medium is observed because surfactants detach from the MWNT surface and aggressively partition to the oil/water interface, allowing the MWNT to flocculate and become deposited in the porous medium.

The research and application of compound flooding system in the block L of Huabei oilfield

In the three rounds of gel flooding of the block L in Huabei oilfield, better effect of watercut decreasing and oil increasing had been achieved. In order to further develop the remaining oil potential, an oil-displacement slug was added on the basis of the gel slug, to form a compound flooding system in order to improve the oil displacement efficiency. Two types of oil displacement agents were optimized through basic performance evaluation. NO.I is surfactant. When the concentration was 0.3 percent, the oil-water interfacial tension could reach 1.15 ×10−3mn/m and still remain within the ultra-low interfacial tension range after 150 days under formation temperature but the static adsorption loss was only 3.4mg/g. NO.II is a kind of granular oil displacement agent with certain sealing ability.The initial particle size was 189nm and the size reached 520nm after hydration for 30 days and remained stable. In the sand filled tube with a permeability of 550×10−3μm2, the plugging rate was up to 70.88 percent. Through the double tube with high-low permeability core experiments, the oil displacement effect of movable gel, movable gel with oil displacement agent I and movable gel with oil displacement agent II were further compared. The results showed that movable gel with oil displacement agent II could improve oil recovery by 20.95 percent compared with water flooding, 7.88 percent compared with movable gel and 5.92 percent compared with movable gel with oil displacement agent I.The composite flooding system was applied in the block L with 6 wells and the effect of watercut decreasing and oil increasing was significant. The daily oil increase in peak period was 10t, and the watercut was decreased by 5.3 percent. The accumulative oil increase was 2736 tons with 13 months validity and will continue to be effective.

A thermal-stable and salt-tolerant biobased zwitterionic surfactant with ultralow interfacial tension between crude oil and formation brine

A thermal-stable and salt-tolerant biobased zwitterionic surfactant N, N-Dimethyl-N-[2-hydroxy-3-sulfo-propyl]-N′-phenyloctadecanoyl-1, 3-diaminopropane (SPODP) was successfully obtained from modification of oleic acids which can be regenerated from waste cooking oils, and its structure was characterized using GC-MS, ESI-MS and 1H NMR approaches. The biobased zwitterionic surfactant demonstrated a strong interfacial activity at high salinity and high temperature conditions at a very low surfactant dosage in formation brine. The ultralow interfacial tension (≤10−3 mN/m) between crude oil and brine was reached at 0.5 g/L in brine with a wide range compatibility of NaCl up to saturation, Ca2+ up to 500 mg/L, and temperature up to 95 °C. Meanwhile, it also exhibited strong wetting ability and resistance against adsorption on sands. All the results from this study suggest that the biobased zwitterionic surfactant is promising over varieties of traditional surfactants in applications in alkali free systems in enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Cationic/Nonionic Mixed Surfactants as Enhanced Oil Recovery Fluids: Influence of Mixed Micellization and Polymer Association on Interfacial, Rheological, and Rock-Wetting Characteristics

In this study, the efficacy of ionic/nonionic mixed surfactant systems as a promising chemical route toward enhanced oil recovery applications is investigated. The critical micelle concentration of the (CTAB + Tween 60) surfactant system was confirmed using conductivity studies and surface tensiometry. Thermodynamic analyses revealed that both adsorption and micellization processes in mixed surfactant compositions are more pronounced/effective as compared to pure surfactant solutions. Addition of polymer resulted in improved micellar stability in mixed surfactant systems by steric interactions. Ultralow interfacial tension values were obtained for mixed surfactant systems using a spinning drop technique. In the presence of carboxymethylcellulose (polymer), the viscosity of surfactant slugs are improved, leading to sweep efficiency during oil displacement process. Viscoelasticity investigations reveal that elastic modulus (G′) dominate over viscous modulus (G″) at an angular frequency of >1 rad/s, showing ...

Ultra-Low Interfacial Tension Foam System for Enhanced Oil Recovery

The liquid phase of foam systems plays a major role in improving the fluidity of oil, by reducing oil viscosity and stripping oil from rock surfaces during foam-flooding processes. Improving the oil displacement capacity of the foam’s liquid phase could lead to significant improvement in foam-flooding effects. Oil-liquid interfacial tension (IFT) is an important indicator of the oil displacement capacity of a liquid. In this study, several surfactants were used as foaming agents, and polymers were used as foam stabilizers. Foaming was induced using a Waring blender stirring method. Foam with an oil-liquid IFT of less than 10–3 mN/m was prepared after a series of adjustments to the liquid composition. This study verified the possibility of a foam system with both an ultra-low oil-liquid IFT and high foaming properties. Our results provide insight into a means of optimizing foam fluids for enhanced oil recovery.

Insights into design of mobility control for chemical enhanced oil recovery

This study compares two methods of mobility-control design for chemical enhanced oil recovery processes. Method 1 matches the total relative fluid mobility upstream and downstream of the shock front. In method 2 the viscosity of the displacing agent is selected such that the total mobility at the shock water saturation is equal to or less than the minimum mobility across the saturation range. The two methods are based on fractional flow analysis of one-dimensional flow and they are validated against two-dimensional simulations of flow through heterogeneous permeable media. Our results emphasize the key role of the water/oil relative permeability curves for the design of mobility control in polymer and surfactant/polymer flooding. The polymer viscosity obtained by setting the shock-front mobility ratio to one (method 1) is the minimum viscosity to ensure a stable displacement front. Design by method 2 results in a larger viscosity than method 1. This shifts the shock water saturation to larger values and hence more oil is displaced. Moreover, we find that for surfactant-polymer (SP) solutions with ultra-low interfacial tension (IFT) reduction (Winsor type III), the required polymer viscosity is always greater than the oil viscosity (at low shear rates). However, for Winsor type I solutions, for oils with medium and large viscosity the non-linear shape of the relative permeability function leads to polymer viscosities that are less than that of the oil. For light oils the viscosity of the ASP solution should be significantly larger than the oil viscosity.

Interfacial Complexation Induced Controllable Fabrication of Stable Polyelectrolyte Microcapsules Using All-Aqueous Droplet Microfluidics for Enzyme Release.

Water-in-water (w/w) emulsions are particularly advantageous for biomedical-related applications, such as cell encapsulation, bioreactors, biocompatible storage, and processing of biomacromolecules. However, due to ultralow interfacial tension, generation and stabilization of uniform w/w droplets are challenging. In this work, we report a strategy of creating stable and size-controllable w/w droplets that can quickly form polyelectrolyte microcapsules (PEMCs) in a microfluidic device. A three-phase (inner, middle, outer) aqueous system was applied to create a stream of inner phase, which could be broken into droplets via a mechanical perturbation frequency, with size determined by the stream diameter and vibration frequency. The interfacial complexation is formed via electrostatic interaction of polycations of poly(diallyldimethylammoniumchloride) with polyanions of polystyrene sodium sulfate in the inner and outer phases. With addition of negatively charged silica nanoparticles, the stability, permeability, and mechanical strength of the PEMC shell could be well manipulated. Prepared PEMCs were verified by encapsulating fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran molecules and stimuli-triggered release by varying the pH value or osmotic pressure. A model enzyme, trypsin, was successfully encapsulated into PEMCs and released without impairing their catalytic activity. These results highlight its potential applications for efficient encapsulation, storage, delivery, and release of chemical, biological, pharmaceutical, and therapeutic agents.

Study of Surfactant–Polymer Flooding in High-Temperature and High-Salinity Carbonate Rocks

Secondary waterflood processes have low oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs as a result of their oil-wetness and heterogeneity. Surfactants in combination with polymer solutions can improve the oil recovery significantly from these reservoirs through ultralow interfacial tension (IFT), mobility control, and wettability alteration. However, application of surfactant–polymer (SP) flooding in high-salinity and high-temperature carbonate reservoirs is constrained by the thermal stability of polymers at elevated temperatures, compatibility of surfactants with a high concentration of divalent cations present in formation brines, and geochemical interactions with carbonate minerals. This research is focused on understanding surfactant and polymer interactions with formation brines containing high concentrations of divalent cations and thermal stability and transport of polymers in carbonate rocks at a high temperature (80 °C). Surfactant phase behavior experiments (with and without polymer) were performed to id...

Giant Vesicles Encapsulating Aqueous Two-Phase Systems: From Phase Diagrams to Membrane Shape Transformations.

In this review, we summarize recent studies on giant unilamellar vesicles enclosing aqueous polymer solutions of dextran and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), highlighting recent results from our groups. Phase separation occurs for these polymer solutions with concentration above a critical value at room temperature. We introduce approaches used for constructing the phase diagram of such aqueous two-phase system by titration, density and gel permeation chromatography measurements of the coexisting phases. The ultralow interfacial tension of the resulting water-water interface is investigated over a broad concentration range close to the critical point. The scaling exponent of the interfacial tension further away from the critical point agrees well with mean field theory, but close to this point, the behavior disagrees with the Ising value of 1.26. The latter discrepancy arises from the molar mass fractionation of dextran between coexisting phases. Upon encapsulation of the PEG–dextran system into giant vesicles followed by osmotic deflation, the vesicle membrane becomes completely or partially wetted by the aqueous phases, which is controlled by the phase behavior of the polymer mixture and the lipid composition. Deflation leads to a reduction of the vesicle volume and generates excess area of the membrane, which can induce interesting transformations of the vesicle morphology such as vesicle budding. More dramatically, the spontaneous formation of many membrane nanotubes protruding into the interior vesicle compartment reveals a substantial asymmetry and spontaneous curvature of the membrane segments in contact with the PEG-rich phase, arising from the asymmetric adsorption of polymer molecules onto the two leaflets of the bilayers. These membrane nanotubes explore the whole PEG-rich phase for the completely wetted membrane but adhere to the liquid-liquid interface as the membrane becomes partially wetted. Quantitative estimates of the spontaneous curvature are obtained by analyzing different aspects of the tubulated vesicles, which reflect the interplay between aqueous phase separation and spontaneous curvature. The underlying mechanism for the curvature generation is provided by the weak adsorption of PEG onto the lipid bilayers, with a small binding affinity of about 1.6 kBT per PEG chain. Our study builds a bridge between nanoscopic membrane shapes and membrane-polymer interactions.

Effect of Magnetic Iron Core–Carbon Shell Nanoparticles in Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery for Ultralow Interfacial Tension Region

Some of the advantages of the simultaneous use of surfactants and nanoparticles in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are the increase in the efficiency of injection fluid for sweeping, the redu...

Exploring the Potential Application of Palm Methyl Ester Sulfonate as an Interfacial Tension Reducing Surfactant for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery

As the petroleum industry is facing challenges to add more oil reserves in their book, greater emphasis has been placed on improving the ultimate recovery factor for oilfields. When the recovery from primary and secondary methods could not be improved further, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) generally will be sought as the last option. One of the techniques applied in EOR is known as surfactant flooding. Though surfactants are very effective for the incremental oil recovery, there are implications during the post-flooding process. EOR surfactants that derived from petrochemicals generally display negative effects towards the marine ecosystem. This initial study aims to evaluate the potential application of palm oil based methyl ester sulfonate (MES) as a possible candidate for EOR application. Three qualitative and quantitative tests were performed on MES to evaluate its properties and capabilities for application in a specific offshore field. The results obtained from the qualitative compatibility and stability tests show that this anionic surfactant has great stability and compatibility with the brine solution as there are no visible signs of precipitation formation. However, the qualitative phase behavior test results indicated that the surfactant solution although has the ability to react with the crude oil but not at the required micro-emulsion state. In addition, the quantitative interfacial tension (IFT) test results also verified and supported the phase behavior test results where the strength of the MES was not adequate as a single surfactant system to achieve the ultra-low IFT state.

Effect of number of oxypropylene on dynamic interfacial tensions of extended surfactants

Effect of the numbers of oxypropylene on dynamic interfacial tensions (IFT) of five extended surfactants C12-14PmE2S (m = 0, 3, 5, 8 and 12) were investigated. The effects of electrolyte (NaCl and CaCl2) concentration, salinity, surfactant concentration were studied in detail. The IFTs between C12-14PmE2S aqueous solutions and n-decane obtained ultralow range at optimum NaCl concentration expect C12-14E2S. The optimum salinity (S*) decreased with increase of number of oxypropylene. Also, the IFTs of C12-14P8E2S and C12-14P12E2S approached or obtained ultralow IFT in a wide range of CaCl2 concentrations. The IFTs between C12-14P12E2S aqueous solution and n-decane decreased as salinity increased. With increasing surfactant concentration, the values of IFT decreased initially and then increased.

Synthesis, characterization and enhanced oil recovery potential analysis through simulation of a natural anionic surfactant

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) especially surfactant slug injection has received a great attention as an oil recovery technique. Surfactants are capable in reducing the interfacial tension (IFT) and altering the wettability of rock from subsurface reservoir. Here, a new anionic surfactant was synthesized from Madhuca longifolia (Mahua) oil. The surfactant was characterized using FTIR, GC–MS, FE-SEM and EDX analysis and tested rigorously using IFT, wettability and flooding experiments for its application in EOR. The surfactant showed an ultralow IFT value around 1 × 10−2 at optimal salinity. Thermodynamic parameters were calculated using surface tension as a function of temperature and the studies showed that adsorption of molecules at the interface is favorable over micellization. The surfactant was found to be thermally stable by TGA analysis for its application at high temperature reservoir conditions. It showed the ability to alter the wettability of oil-wet sandstone rock surface to water-wet. The core-flooding experiments were conducted using individual surfactant slug and surfactant-polymer slug injection, which showed an additional recovery of almost 20% over convention water flooding. The experimental results were simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The results obtained after simulation study and core-flooding experiment results are very much comparable. The comprehensive evaluation of thermal, interfacial and oil recovery studies provides grounds for potential application in EOR.

Mechanisms of imbibition enhanced oil recovery in low permeability reservoirs: Effect of IFT reduction and wettability alteration

Imbibition has been proposed as an important means by which to recover oil from low permeability reservoirs. However, the mechanism of imbibition enhanced oil recovery (IEOR) remains controversial. In this study, we attempted to explore these mechanisms using three of the most commonly used chemical systems (surfactant, brine based nano-silica, and surfactant based nano-silica solutions). First, the imbibition efficiency of the three systems was investigated through imbibition tests using Amott cells at 80 °C. Then, the interfacial tension (IFT) and contact angle were measured to explore the potential characteristics that may play important roles in IEOR. Finally, the dynamic inverse Bond number was introduced to further analyze the mechanisms of IEOR. The results show that oil recovery can be enhanced by 5.36% when using an ultra-low IFT surfactant solution, which has less ability to alter wettability; up to 4% using brine based nano-silica solutions, which can only alter wettability to more water-wet but cannot reduce the IFT; and 8.78% using surfactant based nano-silica solutions, which can both reduce the IFT and alter wettability effectively. Thus, both low IFT and good wettability alteration are desirable, and the highest recovery was achieved when both characteristics were combined, and maximizing their contributions to IEOR. This work firstly investigated the contribution of IFT reduction and wettability alteration on IEOR separately, and a novel system that produced excellent IEOR efficiency was formulated. This study provides fundamental information to the selection of IEOR chemicals.

Dynamics of Low-Interfacial-Tension Imbibition in Oil-Wet Carbonates

Summary Surfactants induce spontaneous imbibition of water into oil-wet porous media by wettability alteration and interfacial-tension (IFT) reduction. Although the dependence of imbibition on wettability alteration is well-understood, the role of IFT is not as clear. This is partly because, at low IFT values, most water/oil/amphiphile(s) mixtures form emulsions and/or microemulsions, suggesting that the imbibition is accompanied by a phase change, which has been neglected or incorrectly accounted for in previous studies. In this paper, spontaneous displacement of oil from oil-wet porous media by microemulsion-forming surfactants is investigated through simulations and the results are compared with existing experimental data for low-permeability cores with different aspect ratios and permeabilities. Microemulsion viscosity and oil contact angles, with and without surfactant, were measured to better initialize and constrain the simulation model. Results show that with such processes, the imbibition rate and the oil recovery scale differently with core dimensions. Specifically, the rate of imbibition is faster in cores with larger diameter and height, but the recovery factor is smaller when the core aspect ratio deviates considerably from unity. With regard to the mechanism of water uptake, our results suggest, for the first time, that (i) microemulsion formation (i.e., fluid/fluid interface phenomenon) is fast and favored over the wettability alteration (i.e., rock-surface phenomenon) in short times; (ii) a complete wettability transition from an oil-wet to a mixed microemulsion-wet and surfactant-wet state always occurs at ultralow IFT; (iii) wettability alteration causes a more uniform imbibition profile along the core but creates a more diffused imbibition front; and (iv) total emulsification is a strong assumption and fails to describe the dynamics and the scaling of imbibition. Wettability alteration affects the imbibition dynamics locally by changing the composition path, and at a distance by changing the flow behavior. Simulations predict that even though water is not initially present, it forms inside the core. The implications of these results for optimizing the design of low-IFT imbibition are discussed.

Bio-based surfactant for enhanced oil recovery: Interfacial properties, emulsification and rock-fluid interactions

Anionic surfactants are very effective for application in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in sandstone reservoirs because of their promising surface-active properties. Considering the non-biodegradability of some of the commercial surfactants, the present study deals with an anionic surfactant synthesized from naturally occurring soap-nut oil with excellent interfacial properties for application in EOR. The soap-nut surfactant showed the promising properties of interfacial tension (IFT) reduction, emulsification, rock wettability alteration, which are desirable for its application in EOR. An ultra-low IFT value of 2.123 × 10−2 mN/m between crude oil and surfactant solution was obtained at critical micelle concentration (CMC), which was further reduced to 2.037 × 10−3 mN/m at optimum salinity. Phase behaviour studies showed the formation of Winsor III emulsion phase which is beneficial for recovery of the trapped oil from the fine pores of the reservoir by miscibility mechanism. The surfactant exhibited favourable rock-wetting ability from oil-wet rock to water-wet condition. The loss of surfactant by adsorption on the rock surface was studied, and the adsorption data were analysed by Langmuir and Freundlich models. Injection of a small pore volume of surfactant-slug augmented with polymer slug as mobility buffer recovered more than 30% of original oil in place (OOIP) after the conventional water-flooding.

Phase Behavior and Microstructure of Symmetric Nonionic Microemulsions with Long-Chain n-Alkanes and Waxes

Microemulsions are thermodynamically stable, macroscopically isotropic mixtures of at least two immiscible components and a surfactant. Their general features, i.e. the complex phase behavior, the ultralow interfacial tensions, and the multifarious nanostructure, have been systematically elucidated in the last century. However, the efficient solubilization of long-chain n-alkanes and waxes, which plays a significant role in enhanced oil recovery, washing, and cosmetics, remains a challenge. Thus, in this work the influence of the n-alkane chain length k on the phase behavior of ternary (symmetric) microemulsions containing equal volumes of water and oil was studied. Using n-alkanes ranging from n-dodecane (C12H26) to n-dotriacontane (C32H66) and pure n-alkyl polyglycol ether (CiEj) surfactants, we found that the efficiency of the respective surfactant decreases linearly with increasing k, while the phase inversion temperature (PIT) shows a logarithmic dependence. The influence of a technical wax on the ph...

Droplet pinch-off with pressure fluctuations

Dynamics of Newtonian fluid pinch-off is universal, excluding the possibility of manipulating pinch-off behavior by varying initial and boundary conditions which is desirable in applications such as inkjet printing and microfluidics. Here we show that the dynamics of two-fluid pinch-off with disturbed inlet pressure (such as the profile of the conical liquid neck, cone slope, and neck thinning rate) depends on initial perturbations. The nonuniversality arises from pressure-fluctuation-induced nonlocal flow velocity that stretches the axial length scale of the pinch-off region. We renormalize the disturbed pinch-off using the linear ratio, (1 + βε), with β being the empirical constant and ε the dimensionless pressure fluctuation. We further apply the pressure fluctuation in engineering pinch-off where the disturbed and undisturbed systems have identical pinch-off dynamics but distinct material properties. Our results could provide useful guidelines for controlling the breakup of liquid threads with extreme physical properties, such as ultrahigh viscosity and ultralow interfacial tension, in inkjet printing and microfluidics for a range of applications.