Nonmonotonic Elasticity of the Crude Oil–Brine Interface in Relation to Improved Oil Recovery

Injection of optimized chemistry water in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has gained much interest in the past few years. Crude oil–water interfaces can have a viscoelastic character affected by the adsorption of amphiphilic molecules. The brine concentration as well as surfactants may strongly affect the fluid–fluid interfacial viscoelasticity. In this work we investigate interfacial viscoelasticity of two different oils in terms of brine concentration and a nonionic surfactant. We correlate these measurements with oil recovery in a glass-etched flow microchannel. Interfacial viscoelasticity develops relatively fast in both oils, stabilizing at about 48 h. The interfaces are found to be more elastic than viscous. The interfacial elastic (<i>G</i>′) and viscous (<i>G</i>″) moduli increase as the salt concentration decreases until a maximum in viscoelasticity is observed around 0.01 wt % of salt. Monovalent (Na⁺) and divalent (Mg²⁺) cations are used to investigate the effect of ion type; no difference is observed at low salinity. The introduction of a small amount of a surfactant (100 ppm) increases the elasticity of the crude oil–water interface at high salt concentration. Aqueous solutions that give the maximum interface viscoelasticity and high salinity brines are used to displace oil in a glass-etched “porous media” micromodel. Pressure fluctuations after breakthrough are observed in systems with high salt concentration while at low salt concentration there are no appreciable pressure fluctuations. Oil recovery increases by 5–10% in low salinity brines. By using a small amount of a nonionic surfactant with high salinity brine, oil recovery is enhanced 10% with no pressure fluctuations. Interface elasticity reduces the snap-off of the oil phase, leading to reduced pressure fluctuations. This study sheds light on significance of interface viscoelasticity in oil recovery by change in salt concentration and by addition of a small amount of a nonionic surfactant