Nano-emulsion formulation using spontaneous emulsification: solvent, oil and surfactant optimisation

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Recent Advances in Surfactant EOR

Review of ASP EOR (alkaline surfactant polymer enhanced oil recovery) technology in the petroleum industry: Prospects and challenges

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques can significantly extend global oil reserves once oil prices are high enough to make these techniques economic. Given a broad consensus that we have entered a period of supply constraints, operators can at last plan on the assumption that the oil price is likely to remain relatively high. This, coupled with the realization that new giant fields are becoming increasingly difficult to find, is creating the conditions for extensive deployment of EOR. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the nature, status and prospects for EOR technologies. It explains why the average oil recovery factor worldwide is only between 20% and 40%, describes the factors that contribute to these low recoveries and indicates which of those factors EOR techniques can affect. The paper then summarizes the breadth of EOR processes, the history of their application and their current status. It introduces two new EOR technologies that are beginning to be deployed and which look set to enter mainstream application. Examples of existing EOR projects in the mature oil province of the North Sea are discussed. It concludes by summarizing the future opportunities for the development and deployment of EOR.

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Recovery rates, enhanced oil recovery and technological limits

Foam-oil interaction in porous media: implications for foam assisted enhanced oil recovery.

Solubilization-emulsification mechanisms of detergency

Development of Surfactants for Chemical Flooding at Difficult Reservoir Conditions

Mechanism for defoaming by oils and calcium soap in aqueous systems.

Ammonia as Alkali for Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer Floods

The effects of two potential foam boosters, n-dodecanol (or lauryl alcohol: LA) and tetradecyldimethylamine oxide (C14DMAO), were investigated for two situations in which foam made from a 0.01 wt% solution of a common alkylethoxy sulfate surfactant was highly unstable in the presence of oil drops consisting of an n-hexadecane/oleic acid mixture. In one case in which dissolved CaCl2 was present at alkaline pH, insoluble calcium oleate particles formed in situ and facilitated foam breakage. In the other, a much higher concentration of calcium was present at neutral pH, and drops of a microemulsion phase formed but no calcium oleate. In both cases, 0.005 wt% LA reduced the entry coefficient, E, of the oil to the air-water surface sufficiently to prevent drop entry and stabilized the foam. In contrast, 0.005 wt% C14DMAO caused smaller reductions in E and was ineffective as a foam booster. LA was more effective because it was able to form a more compact monolayer with the surfactant than C14DMAO at the air-water surface, which led to lower surface tensions and hence lower values of E.

Kirk Herbert Raney

Papers

Solubilization-emulsification mechanisms of detergency

Development of Surfactants for Chemical Flooding at Difficult Reservoir Conditions

Mechanism for defoaming by oils and calcium soap in aqueous systems.

Ammonia as Alkali for Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer Floods

Lauryl alcohol and amine oxide as foam stabilizers in the presence of hardness and oily soil