Adsorption-desorption of an amphoteric surfactant onto permeable carbonate rocks

  • Xianmin Zhou*
  • , Ming Han
  • , Alhasan B. Fuseni
  • , Ali A. Yousef
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

The loss of surfactant from aqueous solutions during the propagation in the reservoirs, especially carbonate reservoirs, is one of the major concerns with chemical oil recovery processes. This is due to the loss of effectiveness of the chemical solution to reduce the oil-water interfacial tension and thus renders the process economically unfeasible. This paper presents, in detail, 10 runs of core flooding tests on dynamic adsorption and desorption of an amphoteric surfactant (OCT-1) onto permeable carbonate rocks, which were conducted in natural carbonate core plugs at reservoir temperature of 100°C and pore pressure of 3100 psi. The surfactant solution was continuously injected into the core plug until the effluent surfactant concentration approached that of the injected surfactant solution, followed by seawater injection until no surfactant was present in the effluent. The effluent surfactant concentrations were analyzed by means of titration technique. Amount of dynimc adsorption and desorption of surfactant solutions was calculated using a new definite integral method. The results showed that the adsorption of the surfactant decreases with increase in the value of the pore geometry parameter, (K/Φ)0.5. The adsorption ranges from 0.223 mg/g-rock to 0.597 mg/g-rock for the rocks with permeabilities from 688 md to 110 md. For surfactant concentration of 0.2 wt% OCT-1 in seawater that was used in the study, this level of adsorption implies the surfactant is applicable from adsorption point of view. It was also observed that the adsorption varied with the initial surfactant concentration, as well as relationship between dynamic adsorption and despersion. The value of dispersion, mechanical mixing coefficients and matching adsorption were obtained using dispersion/adsorption equations to match experimental data. This paper presents insights into the adsorption and desorption of the amphoteric type of surfactant on carbonate rocks which could help the application design for a chemical flooding process.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSociety of Petroleum Engineers - 18th SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium 2012
Pages552-572
Number of pages21
StatePublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameProceedings - SPE Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery
Volume1

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology

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