Characterization of Quartz Sand as an Adsorbent for Anionic Surfactant Adsorption with Presences of Alkaline and Polymer

• Published in: Chemical Engineering Transactions
• Main Author: Amran T.; Mohd T.; Bohairah N.A.; Jaafar M.Z.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Italian Association of Chemical Engineering - AIDIC 2022
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85144085061&doi=10.3303%2fCET2295048&partnerID=40&md5=a9ce7c99254b279ab2ed2f36abea3676

Alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding is a formulation designed on the basis of alkali, surfactant and polymer flooding to enhance oil recovery, however, surfactant loss in ASP could degrade the efficiency of the process. This study highlights the characterization of quartz sand as an adsorbent for adsorption of anionic Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS) surfactant with presences of alkaline and polymer. Quartz sand was characterized using SEM-EDX and FTIR analyses. For static adsorption tests, three systems were formulated, namely Surfactant, Alkaline-Surfactant (AS) and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP), respectively. 10,000 ppm sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and 500 ppm of anionic Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymer were formulated with varying surfactant concentration, which were mixed with the quartz sand at a fixed mass-to-volume ratio of 1:5. Under SEM-EDX analysis, quartz sand analysed as grain with relief and crescentic marks and SiK was found as the highest mineral component with 43.48%. FTIR results have found the spectrums representing SDS surfactant at specific peaks after treatment of quartz sand, which confirmed that surfactant adsorption has occurred. The equilibrium adsorption results showed that the highest surfactant adsorption was obtained by surfactant formulation (0.93 mg/g), while the lowest adsorption was exhibited by ASP (0.34 mg/g), a significant reduction of 63% with presences of alkaline and polymer in the formulation. Copyright © 2022, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.