Experimental Investigation Of Acid-Alkaline-Surfactant Optimization Using High Salinity Injection Water For Chemical EOR

• Main Author: ZULKIFLI, SHAHRUL AZWAN
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2011
• Subjects: T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/7360/1/2011%20-%20Experimental%20Investigation%20of%20Acid-Alkaline-Surfactant%20Injection%20Water%20for%20Chemical%20EOR.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/7360/

In Chemical EOR, ASP flooding is proven to be cost-effective in recovering the remaining oil. However, ASP flooding is not compatible to be used in hard brine due to the reaction of alkali/surfactant with the divalent metal cations to produce insoluble precipitation. So, the aim of the research is to produce a new formulation that can be used together with hard brine without the occurrence of precipitations. A feasibility test was conducted to observe the compatibility of the new formulation with the hard brine. The acid was evaluated in this new formulation using alkalis (sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide) and surfactant (Alpha Olefin Sulfonate). The precipitation is the key indicator to determine the compatibility of these chemicals in the hard brine that contain large quantity of metals cations. The aspects that need to be studied are including Acid - Alkali interaction in hard brine, Acid- Surfactant interaction in hard brine and AcidAlkali - Surfactant interaction in hard brine. At the end in the experiment, it was found out that the acid to alkali ratio of 1.33:1 is the most optimum ratio as no precipitation was produced. So, this makes the new Acid - Alkali - Surfactant formulation an option for the CEOR process, particularly in the offshore operation.