Effect of a Green Surfactant on Interfacial Tension Reduction and Wettability Alteration in Water-kerosene System

Over half of the original oil in place is retained in a reservoir after the accomplishment of primary and secondary production schemes. The implementation of chemical stimulation such as surfactant flooding as tertiary-stage recovery methods as part of an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique is inevitable. By far, most of the surfactants utilized in oil industry are not environmentally-friendly and can therefore contaminate the environment. In this study, application of a green amino acid-based surfactant in EOR is investigated by measuring interfacial tension (IFT) values between oil and the addressed surfactant solution and also the contact angle values between surfactant solution and carbonate rock samples. The results demonstrated that surfactant solution reduced interfacial tension between oil and distilled water from 32.47 to 19.96 mN/m. This green surfactant was also able to reduce the contact angle of rock/fluid system from 123.52 to 102.76, i.e. from oil wet to neutral wet state.

کلیدواژه ها:

Interfacial tension ، wettability ، enhanced oil recovery ، surfactant