Surfactants petroleum industry

Considerable interest arose during the 1970 s and 1980 s in the use of micro-organisms to produce useful fatty adds and related compounds from hydrocarbons derived from the petroleum industry. During this period, a large number of patents were granted in Europe, USA and Japan protecting processes leading to the production of alkanols, alkyl oxides, ketones, alkanoic adds, alkane dioic acids and surfactants from hydrocarbons. Many of these processes involved the use of bacteria and yeasts associated with hydrocarbon catabolism. 

This technology, along with similar technologies such as surfactant flushing, was originally developed in the petroleum industry to improve hydrocarbon recovery. Its use in environmental apphcations such as aquifer remediation is relatively new, with most laboratory and field trials having been carried out during the past 8 years. 

Schramm, L.L. (Ed.), Surfactants Fundamentals and Applications in the Petroleum Industry, Cambridge University Press Cambridge, UK, 2000. 

Thomas, T.R. and Wilkes, T.M., The Use of Surfactants in Lightweight Drilling Fluids in Surfactants, Fundamentals and Applications in the Petroleum Industry, Schramm, L.L. (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2000, pp. 295-327. 

Han, D., 2001. Surfactant Elooding Principles and Apphcations. Petroleum Industry Press. 

Sun, H.-Q., 2005. Formula selection and pilot test of a surfactant-polymer flooding. In Yan, C.-Z., Li, Y. (Eds.), Tertiary Oil Recovery Symposium. Petroleum Industry Press, pp. 116-122. 

Witcor. [Witco] Corrosion and scale inhibitor, surfactant for petroleum industry, water treatment... 

His research interests have included many aspects of colloid and interface science applied to the petroleum industry, including research into mechanisms of processes for the improved recovery of light, heavy, or bituminous crude oils, such as in situ foam, polymer or surfactant flooding, and surface hot water flotation from oil sands. These mostly experimental investigations have involved the formation and stability of dispersions (foams, emulsions, and suspensions) and their flow properties, elec-trokinetic properties, interfacial properties, phase attachments, and the reactions and interactions of surfactants in solution. 

In MOST APPLICATIONS IN THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, such as in steam-foam flooding, aqueous foams are used to control flow resistance, and this capability makes them attractive for mobility control for improving oil recovery. When the surfactant solution comes in contact with oil in the porous medium, oil is emulsified, and Figure 1 shows the presence of emulsified oil droplets inside of a capillary network. The oil has... 

Effect of Temperature. In the application of foams in the petroleum industry, the temperature is a very important parameter. The effect of temperature was studied with nonionic surfactants in which the intermicel-... 

The importance of these findings to the petroleum industry relies on the underestimation about the use of biocides in continental platforms, oil storage tanks, and pipelines. Those environments are constantly subjected to anaerobic microbial activity, which are usually controlled through the addition of biocides in the absence of surfactants. 

A number of reviews appeared on the use of surfactants and their mixtures, as well as surfactant-polymer mixtures in EOR during the sixties to eighties [219 -223]. Schramm published monographs on the use of emulsions [37] and foams [224] in oil recovery processes. In Russia, a small guidebook on agents used in the petroleum industry was issued 15 years ago [225]. All this facilitates the discussion of this problem in the present chapter where we make efforts to demonstrate the main results obtained earlier and to attract attention to new work. 

LL Schramm, SM Kutay. In LL Schramm, ed. Surfactants Fundamentals and Applications in the Petroleum Industry. Cambridge, New York Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp 79-97. DT Wasan, SM Shah, M Chan, K Sampath, R Shah., In RL Berg, ed. Chemistry of Oil Recovery. ACS Symposium Series 91, Washington, DC American Chemical Society, 1979, pp 115-146. 

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