Surfactant crude

In the crude, water is found partly in solution and partly in the form of a more-or-less stable emulsion this stability is due to the presence of asphaltenes or certain surfactant agents such as mercaptans or naphthenic acids. 

Prior to about 1920, flotation procedures were rather crude and rested primarily on the observation that copper and lead-zinc ore pulps (crushed ore mixed with water) could be benefacted (improved in mineral content) by treatment with large amounts of fatty and oily materials. The mineral particles collected in the oily layer and thus could be separated from the gangue and the water. Since then, oil flotation has been largely replaced by froth or foam flotation. Here, only minor amounts of oil or surfactant are used and a froth is formed by agitating or bubbling air through the suspension. The oily froth or foam is concentrated in mineral particles and can be skimmed off as shown schematically in Fig. XIII-4. 

Endo-exo ratios of the micelle-catalysed reactions have been determined by adding 0.25 mmol of 5.1c and 0.5 mmol of 5.2 to a solution of 5 mmol of surfactant and 0.005 mmol of EDTA in 50 ml of water in carefully sealed 50 ml flasks. The solutions were stirred for 7 days at 26 C and subsequently freeze-dried. The SDS and CTAB containing reaction mixtures were stirred with 100 ml of ether. Filtration and evaporation of the ether afforded the crude product mixtures. Extraction of the Diels-Alder adducts from the freeze-dried reaction mixture containing C12E7 was performed by stirring with 50 ml of pentane. Cooling the solution to -18 C resulted in precipitation of the surfactant. Filtration and evaporation of the solvent afforded the adduct mixture. Endo-exo ratios... 

Ci2-Ci3 ether carboxylic acid with 4.5-6 mol EO and Ci2-C15 ether carboxylic acid with 9 mol EO as cosurfactant improve the use of alkyl-o-xylene-sulfonate as primary surfactant at different salinity while maintaining good oil solubilization [189]. It is possible to optimize the surfactant system in relation to the crude oil reservoir characteristics. 

Tests were performed at 75°C using a University of Texas Model 500 spinning drop tensiometer. Active surfactant concentration in the aqueous phase prior to oil addition was 0.50% wt. The Kem River crude oil was from the Patricia Lease. The pH of the deionized water surfactant solutions was 8. The pH of the aqueous NaCl surfactant solutions was 9.5 unless otherwise noted. values represent the average deviation of two or three measurements at different times (0.75-1 h apart). D.I., deionized. 

Decreasing the pH of 3% NaCl (entries 2 and 3, Table 14) could decrease neutralization of crude oil organic acids. This neutralization increases both aqueous phase salinity and effective surfactant concentration. A lower effective surfactant concentration at pH 8 could account for the increased interfacial tension value. However, a similar pH change does not reduce IFT when the surfactant is AOS 1618 with a much lower di monosulfonate ratio (entries 6 and 7, Table 14). 

Oil-in-water emulsions provide a cost-effective alternative to the methods mentioned previously, namely, heating or diluting. A typical transport emulsion is composed of 70% crude oil, 30% aqueous phase, and 500 to 2000 ppm of a stabilizing surfactant formulation [1497]. Nonionic surfactants are relatively insensitive to the salt content of the aqueous phase ethoxylated alkylphenols have been used successfully for the formation of stable emulsions that resist inversion. 

With chemical treatment, the natural surfactants in crude oil can be activated [1384]. This method has been shown to be effective for highly viscous crude oil from the Orinoco Belt that has been traditionally transported either by heating or diluting. The precursors to the surfactants are preferably the carboxylic acids that occur in the crude oil. The activation occurs by adding an aqueous buffer solution [1382,1383]. The buffer additive is either sodium hydroxide in combination with sodium bicarbonate or sodium silicate. Water-soluble amines also have been found to be suitable [1506]. 

Polymers can be used for mobility control. The interaction between polymers and surfactants is shown to be affected by pH, ionic strength, crude oil type, and the properties of the polymers and surfactants [642]. 

Optimizing the formulation of micellar surfactant solutions used for enhanced oil recovery consists of obtaining interfacial tensions as low as possible in multiphase systems, which can be achieved by mixing the injected solution with formation fluids. The solubilization of hydrocarbons by the micellar phases of such systems is linked directly to the interfacial efficiency of surfactants. Numerous research projects have shown that the amount of hydrocarbons solubilized by the surfactant is generally as great as the interfacial tension between the micellar phase and the hydrocarbons. The solubilization of crude oils depends strongly on their chemical composition [155]. 

Water-in-oil macroemulsions have been proposed as a method for producing viscous drive fluids that can maintain effective mobility control while displacing moderately viscous oils. For example, the use of water-in-oil and oil-in-water macroemulsions have been evaluated as drive fluids to improve oil recovery of viscous oils. Such emulsions have been created by addition of sodium hydroxide to acidic crude oils from Canada and Venezuela. In this study, the emulsions were stabilized by soap films created by saponification of acidic hydrocarbon components in the crude oil by sodium hydroxide. These soap films reduced the oil/water interfacial tension, acting as surfactants to stabilize the water-in-oil emulsion. It is well known, therefore, that the stability of such emulsions substantially depends on the use of sodium hydroxide (i.e., caustic) for producing a soap film to reduce the oil/water interfacial tension. 

Interfacial rheologic properties of different crude oil-water systems were determined in wide temperature and shear rate ranges and in the presence of inorganic electrolytes, surfactants, alkaline materials, and polymers [1056]. 

Crude oils contain various amounts of indigenous surface-active agents that stabilize water-in-oil emulsions. Therefore crude oils may stabilize such emulsions. It has been shown that the effectiveness of a dispersant is dependent on both the dispersant type and the specific crude oil [309]. However, there is no apparent correlation between the degree of emulsion-forming tendency of the crude oil, which is a function of the indigenous surfactant content, and the effectiveness of the dispersant. In general, indigenous surfactants in crude oil reduce the effectiveness of the dispersant, but to an unpredictable level. 

A water-continuous emulsion, suitable for use as an antifoam additive, contains 85% to 98% by weight of a fluorosilicone oil and 2% to 15% by weight of an aqueous surfactant solution [1722]. The additive is suitable for use in separation of crude oil that contains associated gas. The additive may be used in both aqueous and nonaqueous systems and allows fluorosilicone oils to be used without the need for environmentally damaging chlorofluorocarbons. 

The performance of demulsifiers can be predicted by the relationship between the film pressure of the demulsifier and the normalized area and the solvent properties of the demulsifier [1632]. The surfactant activity of the demulsifier is dependent on the bulk phase behavior of the chemical when dispersed in the crude oil emulsions. This behavior can be monitored by determining the demulsifier pressure-area isotherms for adsorption at the crude oil-water interface. 

Interpretation of NMR well logs is usually made with the assumption that the formation is water-wet such that water occupies the smaller pores and oil relaxes as the bulk fluid. Examination of crude oil, brine, rock systems show that a mixed-wet condition is more common than a water-wet condition, but the NMR interpretation may not be adversely affected [47]. Surfactants used in oil-based drilling fluids have a significant effect on wettability and the NMR response can be correlated with the Amott-Harvey wettability index [46]. These surfactants can have an effect on the estimation of the irreducible water saturation unless compensated by adjusting the T2 cut-off [48]. 

Surfactants have been widely used to reduce the interfacial tension between oil and soil, thus enhancing the efficiency of rinsing oil from soil. Numerous environmentally safe and relatively inexpensive surfactants are commercially available. Table 18.6 lists some surfactants and their chemical properties.74 The data in Table 18.6 are based on laboratory experimentation therefore, before selection, further field testing on their performance is recommended. The Texas Research Institute75 demonstrated that a mixture of anionic and nonionic surfactants resulted in contaminant recovery of up to 40%. A laboratory study showed that crude oil recovery was increased from less than 1% to 86%, and PCB recovery was increased from less than 1% to 68% when soil columns were flushed with an aqueous surfactant solution.74-76... 

Use of carefully selected surfactants in well treatment fluids is a way to accomplish this. Rock wettability can be altered by adsorption of polar materials such as surfactants and corrosion inhibitors, or by the deposition of polar crude oil components (173). Pressure appears to have little influence on rock wettability (174). The two techniques used to study wettability, contact and and relative permeability measurements, show qualitative agreement (175-177). Deposition of polar asphaltenes can be particularly significant in carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery. 

The use of polyethylene glycol ethers in a process in which a high viscosity emulsion is formed on contact with residual crude oil has also been tested as a means of plugging thief zones using surfactants (248-250). Precipitation of sodium pectate when fresh water solutions contact brine has been proposed as a method of plugging high permeability zones (251). 

Steam flooding (397,499,500) can greatly increase the recovery of high viscosity crude oils through heat thinning processes. As noted previously, surfactants can be used to reduce the mobility of... 

It can be mentioned here that we found in another study (17), that these surfactant remobilization mechanisms by mixed micellization also operated in the presence of crude oil in the medium and thus help increase oil recovery. 

The assessment of surfactant structures and optimal mixtures for potential use in tertiary flooding strategies in North Sea fields has been examined from fundamental investigations using pure oils. The present study furthermore addresses the physico-chemical problems associated with reservoir oils and how the phase performance of these systems may be correlated with model oils, including the use of toluene and cyclohexane in stock tank oils to produce synthetic live reservoir crudes. Any dependence of surfactant molecular structure on the observed phase properties of proposed oils of equivalent alkane carbon number (EACN) would render simulated live oils as unrepresentative. 

---