Industry chemical flooding processes

Local population density and sensitivity, land use and environmental considerations should play an important role in the decision to build, use or continue operation of a warehouse for chemical storage. Local conditions such as high population density, nearby schools or hospitals, or highly sensitive plant and animal species can magnify the problems associated with a chemical release. Natural perils such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes should be considered as they may precipitate chemical releases. Exposure from nearby industries, such as warehouses, flammable liquid storage or processing facilities should be evaluated. Additionally, the potential for riot and civil commotion, the adequacy of emergency responders, and the adequacy and reliability of utilities such as electricity and water supply should also be addressed. 

Alkaline flooding (AF) is a chemical process used in the Petroleum Industry to remove oil from pore walls and to mobilize the mechanically entrapped oil globules or ganglia in porous media. Among all the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes, the AF is one of the most complicated and least understood due to its complex oil recovery mechanisms. 

Surfactant usage in the petroleum industry will probably increase as new applications are found and older applications like surfactant flooding are implemented. The regulatory situation now is different than the 1970s, and the use of chemicals carries with them the need to understand the environmental fate and effects of these chemicals in normal applications and in accidental releases. Environmental risk assessment is a systematic, yet simple, process for doing this. 

The NRA is an asymmetrical representation of safety issues it looks only at threats. This unilateral approach is understandable, given that the exercise is concerned with social disruption (catastrophe potential). But the safety issues that are included in the NRA also offer opportunities. The risk involved in processing hazardous substances is balanced by the economic interests of the petro-chemical industry the uncertain health risks involved in intensive livestock farming are balanced by the economic interests of this sector and the risk of flooding is balanced by fertile soil and the enjoyment people get from living along a river or lake. If we look at the opportunities (in the NRA or complementary documents), we immediately face another question what share of the responsibility is borne by those who enjoy the benefits ... 

Although the addition of biocide is the current practice in much of the oil industry for polymer flooding and many other water injection and near well treatments, some care should still be taken. For example, the biocide may interfere with other additives in the process in the case of polymer flooding, it was discussed earlier in this chapter how the biocide may interact in a detrimental way with the action of chemical stabiliser packages. Thus, the task is to find a suitable biocide that is compatible with other fluid additives. For further details, the reader is referred to the papers quoted in this section and the references therein. 

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