Developing New Natural Surfactant from Date Seeds for Different Field Applications

The increase in using natural surfactants for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) purposes in recent years is mainly attributed to the widespread global awareness of the environmental effects the oil and gas industry causes. In accordance with KSA Vision 2030 and the corresponding global direction, the purpose of this study is to discover a cost effective, readily available, environmentally friendly, and locally sourced surfactant. This surfactant will help reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between reservoir liquids to enhance the reservoir’s productivity and increase its ultimate recovery. In this study, date seeds have been chosen as the green surfactant source due to the abundance of such seeds. Al-Khalas, which is a well-known palm tree that grows in Qassim, Al-Kharj, and Al-Ahsa provinces in KSA was chosen. Properties such as surface tension (ST), IFT, pH, and density were measured to evaluate the effectiveness of date seeds as a natural surfactant. ST results showed a reduction from 72 mN/m (of distilled water) to 43 mN/m using the new surfactant in formation water at 10 wt% comprising a 40% reduction. Moreover, IFT of the new surfactant with Saudi medium oil (26 API) was 10 mN/m compared to 18 mN/m of a formation water-oil system which represents a 49% reduction in interfacial tension. Overall, the novel surfactant studied in this research shows great promise in being an effective EOR agent in addition to eliminating the negative impacts of regular surfactants on the environment.