Enhanced Oil Recovery Using Novel Bio-Based Surfactant Synthesized from Algae

Cost of conventional surfactants coupled with decreasing oil prices and increasing recovery has led to the search and quest for more low-cost yet effective methods and techniques to recover residual and heavy oil in the reservoir. More research has been steered towards environmental-friendly and fluids with low toxicity to be used in tertiary recovery of oil. Oil extracted from algae has been seen to have a promising yield for biodiesel bio-based surfactant production, hence the need to find its potentials in EOR. The aim of this study was to formulate an algae-based Methyl Ester Sulfonate (MES) and to find its effectiveness in lowering surface tension between rock matrix and oil and application in core flood process. The produced MES was analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and it showed that the absorption peaked in the presence of single chained alkane stretch bond (C-H stretching alkane) with wavenumber and transmittance of 2918.39 cm-1 and 18.77 % respectively and presence of sulfonate group that indicates the surfactant is a methyl ester sulfonate. The CMC value of the surfactant was seen to be 1.24 and an IFT reduction from 28 to 5.1mN/m with a decrease of 81.8%. In the core flood process, at the end of the surfactant flooding, the novel surfactant was able to displace residual oil from the two cores with efficiencies of 35.9% and 41.8%.