Improvement of Nanoparticles Surfaces for Defining Water/Crude Oil Interface

• Main Author: Muhammad Dimyati, Umar Islam
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2014
• Subjects: T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/14349/1/Final%20Draft_Umar_13870_PE_rev04.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/14349/

Modification of Zinc Oxide surface was conducted using Oleic Acid coating and Silica Dioxide coating. After the completion of surface modification, the nanoparticles are evaluated using Zeta Potential measurement to verify the successfulness and the stability of surface-modified nanoparticles. The nanoparticle Zinc Oxide was chosen to be the base for the coating because it has been proven from previous experiment to aggregate best at the interface when is compared with other metal oxides nanoparticle, but may still needs improvement to improve its stability at the interface. The purpose of this experiment is to study the possibility of the surface-modified nanoparticles to aggregate at the water/crude oil interface using different type of crude oil. The crude oil use in this experiment is consists of Miri light crude oil, medium crude of Kikeh Crude and heavy crude oil Castilla Crude. Additionally, this research will help explore the possibility to assist the monitoring of the formation flood front. Using resistivity as one of the parameter would help in the monitoring of the nanoparticles to identify the absence and presence of the nanoparticles at the flood front. Unfortunately, the finding did not produce the expected result. There was little aggregation at the water/oil interface and the resistivity measured was not significant in comparison with previous experimentation. However, this study has help to see the relationship of zeta potential to the aggregation at the water/crude oil interface and the behaviour of surface-coated nanoparticles in different type of crude oil.