Study of phase behaviour and ionic effect of green surfactants in MEOR
Bashirul Haq A D , Jishan Liu B , Keyu Liu C and Dhafer Al Shehri AA Department of Petroleum Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahrain, Saudi Arabia.
B School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, The University of Western Australia.
C School of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong 266580, China.
D Corresponding author. Email: bhaq@kfupm.edu.sa
The APPEA Journal 58(1) 84-93 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ17202
Submitted: 7 December 2017 Accepted: 23 February 2018 Published: 28 May 2018
Abstract
The phase behaviour of surfactant systems is an important characteristic for microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) and is a key method for understanding and predicting the performance of surfactant systems. In addition, ions play a vital role in surfactant chemistry and the ionic effects of green surfactants are not yet well characterised. Green surfactants are biodegradable and environmental friendly and perceived to have great potential for MEOR. This study characterises some green anionic and non-ionic surfactants through phase behaviour study, interfacial tension (IFT) and core flooding experiments. At the same time, the combined effect of the surfactants with alcohols on IFT through laboratory experiments are looked into.
Our laboratory experiments have confirmed that the non-ionic surfactant is more active in the reduction of IFT than anionic surfactant. Bio-surfactant is unable to form stable middle phase. Temperature and pressure appear to have little effect on the IFT of non-ionic surfactant. There is no significant reduction in IFT values when the non-ionic surfactant is combined with pentanol in varying concentrations.
The role of alkyl group carbon number in non-ionic surfactant was also investigated in this study. It was found that the IFT value decreased by increasing the lower limit alkyl group carbon number.
Keywords: alkyl group carbon number, anionic surfactants, core flooding, interfacial tension, microbial enhanced oil recovery, non-ionic surfactants, phase behaviour, surfactant systems.
Bashirul Haq is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi Arab and has 15 years of experience in research, teaching, consultancy and testing in reservoir, production and drilling engineering. Haq received a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Western Australia (UWA) and M.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering. Bashir rendered consulting services to Chevron, Helix RDS, Unocal, and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) and worked in the UWA, CSIRO, and Curtin University. He is a member of Engineers Australia and SPE. |
Jishan Liu is currently a professor at The University of Western Australia. He has authored or co-authored about 100 technical papers in a wide range of areas from coal mine dewatering to coalbed methane extraction to CO2 sequestration. His current interests include CO2 enhanced gas recovery and CO2 sequestration in coal seam. |
Keyu Liu is a professor at China University of Petroleum (East China) and an adjunct fellow at Curtin University and CSIRO. He has a BSc from Ocean University of China, an MSc from the University of Sydney, and a PhD from the Australian National University. Keyu previously worked at PetroChina and CSIRO on petroleum system analysis and basin modelling, reservoir characterization, stratigraphic modelling, oil migration, and enhanced oil recovery for 25 years. He is a member of AAPG, Society of Petroleum Engineers, International Association of Sedimentologists and American Geophysical Union. |
Dr. Dhafer Al-Shehri has more than thirty years of oil and gas industry as well as academic experience. Currently he is the chairman of the Petroleum Engineering department and a faculty member within the college of Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences at King Fahd University and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudia Arabia. He also worked for Saudi Aramco from 1996 to 2014. He has assumed leading technical and management positions with upstream operations, engineering and research capacities. Dhafer received BS and MS degrees from KFUPM and PhD from Texas A&M university. His experience included Drilling, Production, Reservoir Management and Applied Research. He is an active member of SPE and served in many committees including chairing the annual SPE Technical Symposium. He has authored may conference and Journal papers and was a key note speaker to several SPE workshops. He also a member in several professional societies. |
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