Comparison of the effect of organic surfactant and non-ionic surfactant on interfacial tension reduction during enhanced oil recovery

• Published in: AIP Conference Proceedings
• Main Author: Basruddin M.S.B.; Suhaimi F.A.M.; Fan W.S.; Shuhili J.A.B.M.; Elraies K.A.; Hyun L.J.; Saaid I.M.; Gogoi S.B.; Ibrahim M.N.M.; Husna U.Z.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85203982401&doi=10.1063%2f5.0230010&partnerID=40&md5=f3fcb34e502f38ddc28dbd081bc3970f

Surfactants are one of the essential components for chemical flooding during enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Surfactants are amphipathic compounds that consist of hydrophilic head and lipophilic tail that could be used to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between the injected solution and the crude oil. Lignin-based surfactants are gaining traction among researchers as the alternative to commercial surfactants due to low cost for production, abundant in nature, biodegradable and eco-friendly properties. However, the study on the comparison between natural surfactants derived from lignin and commercial non-ionic surfactants are still yet to be known. The research aims to compare the performance of lignin-based surfactant and anionic commercial surfactant in terms of IFT reduction and wettability alteration. The objectives to be achieved in this study are to measure the IFT between crude oil and surfactant solution at different concentration for both organic and non-ionic surfactant. Lignin-based surfactant was used as the organic surfactant whereas Triton X-405 as the non-ionic surfactant. Different concentrations of surfactant were used in NaCl brine with salinity of 30,000 ppm with decane as the crude oil. All the experiments were conducted in ambient temperature. The experiment was started by measuring the density of prepared surfactant solutions with decane using a densitometer. Next, the measurement of IFT between crude oil and surfactant solution using pendant drop method and rising drop method would be performed using IFT 700 equipment. From the result, the IFT performance of lignin-based surfactant in terms of IFT reduction was found to be lower than conventional non-ionic surfactant. © 2024 Author(s).