Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Surfactant–Polymer Flooding on Enhanced Oil Recovery for Medium Crude Oil
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MDPI
Abstract
Description
High technical and financial risks are involved in exploring and exploiting new fields;
hence, greater focus has placed on the development of environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) options for existing fields. For reservoirs producing high-density
crudes and those with high interfacial tensions, water flooding is usually less effective due to density
differences—hence the advent of polymer and surfactant flooding. For cost-effective and eco-friendly
EOR solutions, a biopolymer and a surfactant synthesized from Jatropha seeds are used in this
study to determine their effectiveness in increasing the oil recovery during core flooding analysis.
The experiment involved an initial water flooding that served as the base cases of three weight
percentages of polymers and polymeric surfactant solutions. The results for the polymer flooding
of 1 wt%, 1.5 wt%, and 2 wt% showed an incremental oil recovery in comparison to water flooding
of 16.8%, 17%, and 26%, while the polymeric surfactant mixtures of 5 wt% of surfactant and 1 wt%,
1.5 wt%, and 2 wt% of a polymer recorded 16.5%, 22.3%, and 28.8%, and 10 wt% of surfactant and
1 wt%, 1.5 wt%, and 2 wt% of a polymer recorded incremental oil recoveries of 20%, 32.9%, and
38.8%, respectively.
Keywords
TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering, TN Mining engineering. Metallurgy, TP Chemical technology