Alkyl Aryl Sulfonates Surfactants For EOR: Scale Up From Lab To Pilot

Abstract

Abstract Scaling up from lab to pilot is one of the challenges to meet in any ASP project to accomplish the requirements at full implementation. Tailored EOR surfactants developed and manufactured in the laboratory, to achieve the lowest interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and water at the reservoir conditions, have to be viable and robust in the manufacture, capable in performance and compatible in the formulation, not only at laboratory scale, but also at industrial scale. It is described in this poster the route map in the development and manufacture of alkyl aryl sulfonates surfactants for the Cepsa ASP pilot project in the Caracara Sur field, Los Llanos basin (Colombia) from a continuous feed-back of the laboratory tests. The surfactant employed for the project was selected from other surfactants from several suppliers and dyalkylbenzene sodium sulfonate was the one achieving the lowest interfacial tension for Caracara field conditions. The dyalkylbenzene sodium sulfonate was accompanied by a co-surfactant improving the solubility and performance properties. Pilot ASP injection started in May 2015 and some conclusions were obtained during the production of the surfactants in several manufacture batches: Composition, molecular weight even isomerism of alkylbenzenes may impact strongly on the interfacial activity of alkyl aryl sulfonates surfactants.Sulfonation and neutralization of alkylbenzenes are critical processes to comply the requirements of alkyl aryl surfactants for any cEOR project.Finally, the laboratory in the field for quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) of surfactants is completely necessary. Periodical sampling and on-site analyses are scheduled but also samples delivery to research center for more sophisticated analyses. These data are essential for the final performance evaluation and the project success.