Investigation of Different Ionic Liquids in Improving Oil Recovery Factor (original) (raw)
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Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science, 2017
Chemical flooding is one of the most efficient methods for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). This study demonstrates the efficiency of mixing different concentrations of Ionic Liquid (IL), 1-Ethyl-3-Methyl-Imidazolium Acetate ([EMIM][Ac]), with Weyburn brine to improve a medium oil recovery, Weyburn oil, from an unconsolidated sand pack sample at room conditions. Effects of Slug Size (SS), IL + brine slug initiation time, and combining IL with alkali on the Recovery Factor (RF) were investigated. This study showed that the optimum concentration of ([EMIM][AC]) was 1000 ppm and the most efficient injection time of the chemical slug was at the beginning of the flooding procedure (as secondary flooding mode). In addition, it was proved that the potential of injecting a slug of IL + brine is much better than that of introducing a slug of alkali + brine. Besides, the combination of IL and alkali (AIL) resulted in better RF than injecting either of them alone. Finally, the Surface Tension (SFT), pH, wettability alteration, and viscosity of the displacing phases were measured.
The Influence of Ionic Liquid Type, Concentration, and Slug Size on Heavy Oil Recovery Performance
Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas, 2017
Recent studies show that Ionic Liquids (ILs) have the ability to improve oil recovery. In this experimental study, an imidazolium-based Room-Temperature Ionic Liquid (RTIL), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM][OAc]), was used to extract heavy oil (14 °API) from unconsolidated packed sand samples. The RTIL was injected as slug, with different concentrations and sizes. The [EMIM][OAc] results were compared with the efficiency of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([BMIM][Tf 2 N]) and 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([DMIM][Cl]) ILs. The results indicate that the efficiency of IL depends mainly on the type of IL. A comparison with a well-known commercial surfactant (Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate, SDS) was performed, and the results confirmed the higher efficiency of the ionic liquids. Changes in Interfacial Tension (IFT), Surface Tension (SFT), and Zeta Potential (ZP) in the solution supported the recovery factor results. Finding the optimum concentration and slug size are significant factors in making the oil extraction process more economical.
A Review on the Application of Ionic Liquids for Enhanced Oil Recovery
2017
Research is extensively ongoing on the application of ionic liquids (ILs) in technological application, particularly its application in the enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Research in this field, however, is often limited to researchers determining ionic liquids' specific behavior in the aqueous solutions. A comprehensive study is necessary to provide a complete possible understanding of the ionic liquids' surface interaction as the self-organization and micelle formation ability of ionic liquids in aqueous solution have significant effect on their applications and the environment. ILs that have surface activity are able to exhibit the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) to the noticeable value even at high salinity and temperature conditions. The application of ILs as cosurfactant is also favorable to support the surfactant performance in minimizing the IFT values. This review indicates that further investigation is required to study the interphase behavior of ionic liquids in a more complex system where hydrocarbons, salts, surfactants, and other chemical additives are present. The alteration in behavior and system properties due to the interaction of ionic liquid with surfactant may determine its effectiveness in emulsion and foaming studies. These two studies are essential in the application of ionic liquids in oil and gas reservoirs, particularly water and chemical flooding to increase the recovery of oil.
A Review on the Feasibility Study of Ionic Liquids for Enhanced Oil Recovery
— Injection of chemicals in reservoirs is an effective technique for improving oil recovery. The unique capabilities of ionic liquids as green materials, such as low vapor pressure, good thermal stability, lower cost of production, greater environmental compatibility and recyclability and reuse, make these compounds a good alternative to chemicals that do not have such properties. Injection of ionic liquids with the aim of reducing oil-water IFT and changing the wettability of the reservoir and a slight change in viscosity and thus improving oil recovery. In this study, a comprehensive study on ionic fluid behavior in complex hydrocarbon systems has been conducted and their effectiveness in improving recovery has been investigated. This study is a great help to new researchers in this field.
Crude oil recovery from matured reservoir still pose challenges due to the low efficiency of the existing enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. The chemical enhanced oil recovery technique is one of the potential EOR technique being used to produce trapped oil from mature reservoirs. One of the key challenge for chemical-EOR process is that the conventional surfactants does not show efficacy toward reduction in interfacial tension and oil recovery under high saline and high temperature conditions. Ionic liquids (ILs) can be one of the potential alternative for possible application in chemical-EOR due to their enhanced stability under high saline and thermal conditions. In this investigation, six different alkyl ammonium ILs and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) have been investigated for their effect on the interfacial tension (IFT) of low waxy crude oil−water system (with and without salt) as a function of temperature (283.15−353.15 K) and for EOR-flooding process. Water-soluble polymer (polyacrylamide) was used as a polymer flood after SDS/ILs flood in EOR study. This combined flood is referred to as SDS/IL + polymer EOR flooding process. Several EOR flooding experiments such as, only polymer, only SDS, only IL, and SDS/ILS + polymer have been carried out. Also, the evaluation of ILs and SDS for EOR has been investigated under zero and high salinity (100 000 ppm) reservoir conditions and compared. The study also provides an insight into the effects of different cations and anions (alkyl chain length) of the ILs on the IFT of crude oil−water system and for the enhanced oil recovery operation.
Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2017
Nearly half of the world's known oil reserves are in the carbonate rocks. Waterflooding recovery from these reservoirs is low and therefore, these reservoirs are good candidates for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. Surfactant flooding which is subset of chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) can increase the recovery from these reservoirs by reduction of interfacial tension (IFT) and alteration of wettability. The purpose of this study was to investigate wettability alteration and IFT reduction by ionic liquids (ILs) as a new family of surfactants. The work started by screening four ILs, namely [C12mim][Cl], [C18mim][Cl], [C8Py][Cl] and [C18Py][Cl], based on pendant drop and contact angle tests for measurement of interfacial tension and wettability. Then, coreflooding test was then performed to study the effect of the selected ILs on ultimate oil recovery in core plug from carbonate oil reservoir. Based on the screening process, [C18mim][Cl] was found to be the optimum IL. Coreflooding with the selected IL revealed 13% increase in oil recovery compared to flooding with brine.
Effect of aromatic ring, cation, and anion types of ionic liquids on heavy oil recovery
Journal of Management Science & Engineering research
Surfactant/alkali flooding is one of the best chemical flooding methods to enhance oil Recovery Factor (RF). In this research, Ionic Liquid/Alkali (ILA) mixtures were chosen to address the chemical injection technique. The selected Ionic Liquids (ILs), [EMIM][Cl], [THTDPH][Cl], [EMIM][Ac], [BzMIM][Cl], [DMIM][Cl], [BzMIM][TOS], [dMIM][TOS] and [MPyr][TOS], were introduced to investigate their efficiency in improving the extraction of heavy oil (14o API) from an unconsolidated sand pack at room conditions. Second, these ILs were mixed with synthetic formation brine (3.37 wt. % salts)/alkali (Sodium Bicarbonate [NaHCO3]). Then, 1 Pore Volume (PV) of these composites were injected and flushed with 2 PV of formation brine. The study discussed the influence of cation type, anion type, the structure of the ILs, and the effect of combining ILs and alkali on the RF. The results revealed that these ILs are efficient chemicals for enhancing the RF. ILs with shorter alkyl chain and more aromat...
Recently, Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) have been demonstrated to be an effective analogue of ionic liquid in many applications. In our previous report, for the first time, two Chloride-based DESs were shown to have significant effects on different oil recovery mechanisms in heavy oil/formation brine/ Berea sandstone system. In this report, the same DESs were used. The effects of DESs concentration, secondary and tertiary DES injections and brine salinity on recovery performance were examined through IFT measurements, contact angle measurements and core flooding experiments. Results of capillary number calculations indicated that although DESs solutions increased the IFT value, the capillary numbers in DESs flooding due to viscous forces and wettability alteration were higher than brine flooding case. Results showed that for both DESs, although the heavy oil recovery factors decreased by diluting the DES solution with brine from 50 vol% to 5 vol%, they were still promising between 6.3 and 8.7% for DES1 and DES2 respectively at lower concentrations of 5 vol%. Also, by reducing concentration from 50 to 25 vol%, there were no changes in recovery factors from 14 to 13.6% for DES1 and from 23.2 to 23.1% for DES2. The same trend was observed during wettability alteration study by contact angle measurements between oil droplet and aged surface of rock samples in the both DESs solutions at different concentrations. It verified that wettability alteration during DES injection has significant impact on oil recovery and it could be dominant and governing mechanism of heavy oil recovery enhancement. The DESs flooding in tertiary stage led to higher total recovery factors. The total recovery at tertiary mode compared to secondary mode were around 16% higher at 50 vol% concentrations and 3–6% higher at 5 vol% concentrations for both DESs. In addition, Results confirmed that the DESs can tolerate wide range of reservoir's salinities and there were no big changes in oil recovery at different brine salinity during tertiary DESs injection.
Ionic liquids as novel surfactants for potential use in enhanced oil recovery
2013
The screening and use of benign chemicals for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications is important because of their properties and relationship to the embedded fluids. We investigated a special type of ionic liquids (ILs) called ''Ammoeng" for potential use in surfactant EOR to replace the currently used surfactants that have many disadvantages. The interfacial tension (IFT) between a representative oil sample from Saudi reservoirs and solutions of Ammoeng TM ILs at different concentrations in 10 wt% NaCl aqueous solutions were measured as a function of temperature. It was found that the IFT values decreased with the increase of IL concentration. However, the effect of temperature on the IFT depended on the type of IL. Ammoeng TM 102 gave the lowest IFT values among the screened ILs. The comparison of the results to those resulting from TritonX100, a commercially used surfactant, showed that the IFT values using Ammoeng TM 102 were smaller than the corresponding values when TritonX100 was used at the same conditions. The possibility of having a synergetic effect when using a mixture of Ammoeng TM 102 and Triton X 100 was also investigated. The results showed that the IFT values depended on the total concentration, the surfactant to IL mass ratio, and the temperature.
Effect of Using Polymer Buffer on Efficiency of Crude Oil Recovery by Ionic Liquids
International Journal of Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering, 2017
Ionic liquids have attracted attention in lowering the interfacial tension between oil and water. Several researches were conducted on these materials and possibility of using them in enhanced oil recovery. In this paper, the effect of using a polymer buffer behind a slug size of ionic liquid during flooding was investigated. Ionic liquid solution was prepared with suitable concentration and salinity. Partially Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide Polymer (HPAM) was used in preparing polymer solutions. Core flooding runs were performed using slug sizes of ionic liquid followed by polymer buffers having different slug sizes, polymer concentrations, salinities, temperatures and injection rates. The results showed that an injection of a polymer buffer after a slug size of ionic liquid increased the amount of the produced oil significantly. The larger polymer buffer slug size, the larger amount of produced oil. Increasing of salinity and injection rate greatly affect polymer efficiency in the improvement of oil recovery. Rising of polymer concentration may plug the pores and as a result, the amount of oil recovery is not a considerable. Although, increasing of temperature decreases oil viscosity and enhances ionic liquid efficiency, the temperature accelerates polymer thermal degradation and consequently lowers the ultimate oil recovery. High injection rate causes mechanical polymer degradation and displacing fluid bypass over oil, consequently low oil recovery can be obtained.