Assessment of Coconut Surfactant's Foam Properties for Enhanced Oil Recovery

• Published in: Petroleum and Coal
• Main Author: Sani S.D.; Hamza M.F.; Makwashi N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Slovnaft VURUP a.s 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85208964796&partnerID=40&md5=0a9fb12a9e93d0261100ae7aff5a18a2

The application of surfactant's foam in Foam Assisted Water Alternating Gas (FAWAG) is one of the progresses recorded in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) strategies. This study is aimed at synthesizing a bio-surfactant from the coconut oil extract and investigating the foam properties such as stability and bubbles size. The Ross-miles approach, supported by response surface methodology, was utilized to investigate the foam stability. The morphology of the foam was characterized by microscopic analysis to ascertain the foam size distribution and lamella division. According to the results, about 15.8 g of the surfactant was synthesized and key functional groups were identified by FTIR. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for foam stability indicates a p-value of 0.0008 which establishes the model's significancy. Furthermore, the model's acceptable accuracy was demonstrated by the adjusted R2 of 0.87, which was highly consistent with the model R2 value of 0.93. The Foam was found to reach its maximum stability up to 55 second, demonstrating synergy between surfactant and brine. The stability was strongly influenced by brine concentration more than the impact of surfactant concentration. Thus, this foam could find application in EOR. © (2024), (Slovnaft VURUP a.s). All rights reserved.