AOT + Polyethylene Glycol Eutectics for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Eutectic solvents are currently being proposed as useful chemicals for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). In this work, for the first time, the preparation of eutectics based on surfactants and polymers was proposed for this application. These chemicals can be tailored to offer the most desired properties...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied sciences 2021-09, Vol.11 (17), p.8164
Main Authors: Gallego, Cristina, Somoza, Alba, Rodríguez, Héctor, Soto, Ana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adsorption
AOT
Calorimetry
Chemicals
Chloride
Crude oil
Differential scanning calorimetry
Energy consumption
Enhanced oil recovery
EOR
eutectic
Eutectics
Melting points
Methods
Oil
Oil recovery
PEG
Pollutants
Polyethylene glycol
Polymers
Room temperature
Sandstone
Sodium
Spectrum analysis
Sulfosuccinates
Surface tension
Surfactants
Thermal stability
Viscosity
Water flooding
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Eutectic solvents are currently being proposed as useful chemicals for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). In this work, for the first time, the preparation of eutectics based on surfactants and polymers was proposed for this application. These chemicals can be tailored to offer the most desired properties for oil recovery: water/oil interfacial tension reduction and increase of the aqueous phase viscosity, while concomitantly facilitating their handling due to their liquid character at ambient conditions. Sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) of three different molecular weights (namely 600, 1000, and 2000 g/mol) were paired in a search for eutectic behaviors. Melting temperatures for all the systems were determined by differential scanning calorimetry. The most promising combination was AOT + PEG-600, which exhibited a melting point of 275 K and thermal stability up to 473 K at a 40:60 molar ratio. A promising value of 5.1 × 10−2 mN/m was obtained for the interfacial tension between the optimized formulation and crude oil. The formulation was tested in core-holder experiments to extract oil from a sandstone rock at room temperature, achieving an encouraging 34% of additional oil recovery after the secondary extraction.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app11178164