Recent Patents on Chemical Engineering,
2009,
2,
1-10
1 1874-4788/09 $100.00+.00 © 2009 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
Insight into the Chemistry of Surfactant-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes
Benyamin Yadali Jamaloei*
Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada
Received: October 14, 2008; Accepted: November 12, 2008; Revised: November 24, 2008
Abstract:
During the past several decades, significant and considerable research has been carried out on secondary and tertiary recovery of trapped residual oil remaining within the producing formations underground despite the efficient, current primary production strategies and methods. Methods have been sought of increasing oil recovery, while revamping and improving the economic viability and efficiency of operations.
One method that has received much attention and intensive study over these past decades is the use of surfactant-based chemical flooding. Initial patents and laboratory tests have shown conclusively that chemical solutions and slugs including surfactants, remove considerable oil from the porous medium normally trapped after initial waterflooding. Oil recovery processes by means of surfactant micellar solutions or microemulsions have included the injection of slugs of varied compositions. Patents on surfactant-based enhanced oil recovery processes (such as dilute surfactant flooding, surfactant/polymer flooding, and alkaline/surfactant/polymer flooding) have been issued, starting from the 1920’s and particularly after the 1960’s, when the technology was put on a scientific basis. These patents were generally concerned with the chemistry of surfactant-based enhanced oil recovery processes including envisioning the use of chemical solutions (slugs) to decrease the surface tension between oil and the flooding medium, screening of surfactants for oil recovery efficiency, chemical (surfactant) slug designs and formulation to mobilize residual oil, documenting petroleum sulfonates useful in surfactant flooding, and other important factors in the chemistry of surfactant-based chemical flooding processes. Moreover, evaluation and determination of optimum chemical systems (slugs) for the best economics for a specific field application have been disclosed and documented in several large oil companies’ patents in the surfactant-polymer area. In this article, a full-fledged review of the patents on different aspects of the chemistry of surfactant-based enhanced oil recovery processes is presented.
Keywords
: Surfactant, enhanced oil recovery, chemistry, chemical slug, patent.
INTRODUCTION
Technically, chemical flooding is regarded as a general term for injection processes that inject chemical solutions (slugs or systems) into the reservoir. Surfactant-based substances, and/or alkali are used in solution to reduce surface tension between oil and water in the reservoir, whereas polymers are deployed to improve displacement sweep efficiency. Micellar-polymer and alkaline flooding are regarded as the two major chemical flooding processes. Micellar flooding (also known as microemulsion flooding or surfactant flooding) is a process in which a surfactant slug is injected into the formation followed by a larger slug of water containing polymer (normally a high-molecular-weight polymer) which improves mobility and sweep efficiency. Different forms of surfactant-based chemical flooding have been reported in the literature (alkali/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding, surfactant/polymer (SP) flooding, surfactant flooding, dilute surfactant flooding, etc.). The injection scheme for a surfactant-based chemical flooding includes injecting first a preflush, a chemical solution, a mobility
*Address correspondence to this author at the Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada; Tel: +1 403 543 7917; E-mail: byadalij@ucalgary.ca
buffer and, finally, a driving fluid, which displaces the chemicals and the developed oil bank towards producer. In general, surfactant slugs are composed of a hydrocarbon phase, surfactant, cosurfactant and an aqueous phase. The literature contains numerous ternary diagram representations for these components. These phase diagrams reveal the various phases that may form and develop in the reservoir as residual oil is mobilized and displaced towards production well. In the literature, surfactant slug has also been referred to as micellar solutions, microemulsions, soluble oils, swollen micelles, etc. The primary purpose of a surfactant slug is to lower interfacial tension and displace the trapped residual oil normally after reservoir has been flooded by water. The technical and patent literature contains a number of surfactant slug designs and formulations and variety of techniques that are used to screen surfactant slugs for use as potential oil recovery agents. Adsorption of surfactants within surfactant slug on minerals is an important aspect of any surfactant-based chemical flooding. It is regarded as a major cause of surfactant retention and slug breakdown. This has been one of the active research areas in chemical enhanced oil recovery. Regarding the above general discussion on surfactant slug, one would expect a seriously complex chemistry for the design and implementation of the chemical slug in all