Experimental Investigation of Surfactant Partitioning in Pre-CMC and Post-CMC Regimes for Enhanced Oil Recovery Application

Abstract

The applications of surfactants in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) have received more attention in the past decade due to their ability to enhance microscopic sweep efficiency by reducing oil-water interfacial tension in order to mobilize trapped oil. Surfactants can partition in both water and oil systems depending on their solubility in both phases. The partitioning coefficient (Kp) is a key parameter when it comes to describing the ratio between the concentration of the surfactant in the oil phase and the water phase at equilibrium. In this paper, surfactant partitioning of the nonionic surfactant Alkylpolyglucoside (APG) was investigated in pre-critical micelle concentration (CMC) and post-cmc regimes at 80 °C to 106 °C. The Kp was then obtained by measuring the surfactant concentration after equilibration with oil in pre-cmc and post-cmc regimes, which was done using surface tension measurements and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), respectively. Surface tension (ST) and interfacial tension (IFT) behaviors were investigated by performing pendant and spinning drop tests, respectively—both tests were conducted at high temperatures. From this study, it was found that APG was able to lower IFT as well as ST between water/oil and air/oil, and its effect was found to be more profound at high temperature. The partitioning test results for APG in pre-cmc and post-cmc regimes were found to be dependent on the surfactant concentration and temperature. The partitioning coefficient is directly proportional to IFT, where at high partitioning intensity, IFT was found to be very low and vice versa at low partitioning intensity. The effect of temperature on the partitioning in pre-cmc and post-cmc regimes had the same impact, where at a high temperature, additional partitioned surfactant molecules arise at the water-oil interface as the association of molecules becomes easier.