Investigation into the Functions of Alkali and Surfactant in Chemical Flooding for Enhanced Heavy-Oil Recovery

Ji Jiang Ge; Hai Hua Pei; Gui Cai Zhang; Xiao Dong Hu; Lu Chao Jin

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.524-527.1816

Paper Titles

Effect of Oil and Water Interfacial Tension on Oil Recovery of Surfactant-Polymer Flooding
p.1798

Estimation of CO₂-Oil Phase Equilibrium and CO₂ Storage Capacity in Jilin Oil Field
p.1802

Extractive Capacity of CO₂ in Oil Saturated Porous Media
p.1807

Failure Analysis of the Entrance Elbow for Crude Oil Cracking Furnace
p.1811

Investigation into the Functions of Alkali and Surfactant in Chemical Flooding for Enhanced Heavy-Oil Recovery
p.1816

Make Arrangements for Petroleum Pipe Line
p.1821

Numerical Simulation and Influencing Factors Analysis of the Leakage and infiltration diffusion for Fuel Underground Storage Tank
p.1826

Oligomerization of Ethylene in Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Dry Gas to Propylene
p.1835

Parameters Influence of 150000m³ Base Isolation Storage Tank with Floating Roof
p.1839

HomeAdvanced Materials ResearchAdvanced Materials Research Vols. 524-527Investigation into the Functions of Alkali and...

Investigation into the Functions of Alkali and Surfactant in Chemical Flooding for Enhanced Heavy-Oil Recovery

Abstract:

In this study, a comparative study of alkaline flooding and alkali-surfactant flooding were conducted for Zhuangxi heavy oil with viscosity of 325 mPa•s at 55 °C. The results of core flooding tests show that the tertiary oil recovery of alkali-surfactant flooding are lower than those of alkaline-only flooding, in spite of the coexistence of the surfactant and alkali can reduce the IFT between the heavy oil and aqueous phase to an ultralow level. Further flood study via glass-etching micromodel tests demonstrates that injected alkaline-only solution can penetrate into the oil phase and creates some discontinuous water droplet inside the oil phase that tend to lower the mobility of the injected water and lead to the improvement of sweep efficiency. While for alkali-surfactant flooding, heavy oil is easily emulsified in brine by an alkaline plus very dilute surfactant formula to form oil-in-water emulsion, and then entrained in the water phase. Therefore, viscous fingering phenomena occur during the alkali-surfactant flooding, resulting in relatively lower sweep efficiency.