Alkyl polyglycoside surfactant-alcohol cosolvent formulations for improved oil recovery
Abstract
We examine here the suitability of alkyl polyglycosides (APG) for improved oil recovery (IOR) applications. In recent years, these nonionic carbohydrate-based surfactants have become a significant commercial product (80,000 tons/year) with widespread use in household and agricultural products. Our laboratory study determined several characteristics of common APG surfactant formulations, in particular their capability to create low interfacial tensions (IFT) with n-alkane hydrocarbons. Our formulations included a wide range of alcohol cosurfactants with APG surfactants. We found APG–cosurfactant combinations that exhibit low IFT values of 0.01 mN/m or less versus n-octane. Our laboratory tests confirmed these APG formulations can provide useful IFT properties that are largely independent of both salinity and temperature. We report a coreflood test conducted on a Berea sandstone core using a selected formulation that exhibits oil recovery as high as 85% IOIP.
Additional Information
© 2009 Elsevier. Received 6 December 2008. Received in revised form 19 January 2009. Accepted 20 January 2009. Available online 29 January 2009. We thank the Department of Energy (DE-FC26-01BC15362) for providing financial support for this project and we thank Chevron-Texaco and Akzo Nobel for technical assistance. We also thank the Cognis Corporation for supplying APG surfactant samples.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 14984
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090812-094656046
- DE-FC26-01 BC15362
- Department of Energy
- Created
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2009-08-13Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field