MINERAL-SURFACTANT INTERACTIONS FOR MINIMUM REAGENTS PRECIPITATION AND ADSORPTION FOR IMPROVED OIL RECOVERY

The aim of this project is to delineate the role of mineralogy of reservoir rocks in determining interactions between reservoir minerals and externally added reagents (surfactants/polymers) and its effect on critical solid-liquid and liquid-liquid interfacial properties such as adsorption, wettability and interfacial tension in systems relevant to reservoir conditions. Previous studies have suggested that significant surfactant loss by precipitation or adsorption on reservoir minerals can cause chemical schemes to be less than satisfactory for enhanced oil recovery. Both macroscopic adsorption, wettability and microscopic orientation and conformation studies for various surfactant/polymer mixtures/reservoir rocks systems were conducted to explore the cause of chemical loss by means of precipitation or adsorption, and the effect of rock mineralogy on the chemical loss. During this period, the adsorption of mixed system of n-dodecyl-{beta}-D-maltoside (DM) and dodecyl sulfonate (C{sub 12}SO{sub 3}Na) has been studied. The effects of solution pH, surfactant mixing ratio and different salts on surfactant adsorption on alumina have been investigated in detail. Along with these adsorption studies, changes in mineral wettability due to the adsorption of the mixtures were determined under relevant conditions to identify the nano-structure of the adsorbed layers. Solution properties of C{sub 12}SO{sub 3}Na/DM mixtures were also studied to identify surfactant interactions that affect the mixed aggregate formation in solution. Adsorption of SDS on gypsum and limestone suggested stronger surfactant/mineral interaction than on alumina, due to the precipitation of surfactant by dissolved calcium ions. The effects of different salts such as sodium nitrate, sodium sulfite and sodium chloride on DM adsorption on alumina have also been determined. As surfactant hemimicelles at interface and micelles in solution have drastic effects on oil recovery processes, their microstructures in solutions and at mineral/solution interfaces were investigated by monitoring micropolarity of the aggregates using fluorescence technique. Compositional changes of the aggregates in solution were observed with the increase in surfactant concentration. The importance of this lies in that the resulting polarity/hydrophobicity change of the mixed micelles will affect the adsorption of surfactant mixtures on reservoir minerals, surfactant/oil emulsion formation and wettability, as a result, the oil release efficiency of the chemical flooding processes in EOR