Synergistic effect of salt ions and water-soluble amphiphilic compounds of acidic crude oil on surface and interfacial tension

This study investigated the effect of solubility of amphiphilic compounds of acidic crude oil in water on the surface and interfacial tension (IFT) with NaCl, MgCl₂, CaCl₂, and Na₂SO₄ salts. Accordingly, distilled water, along with the salts mentioned in zero ionic strength up to 2 mol were put in contact with crude oil to become saturated with amphiphilic compounds. The effects of these compounds were investigated on the properties of contact water by pH, total organic carbon (TOC), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), water-air surface tension (ST), and water-n-decane IFT tests. The results showed that some of the organic components of crude oil, especially acidic and basic compounds, are present or soluble in water, which have a significant effect on reducing the surface and IFT. The IFT reduction of water-n-decane was greater than the water-air ST system. Also, the observations showed that for both NaCl and Na₂SO₄ salt water, with increasing ionic strength of water, there was an optimum salinity within the range of 0.1-0.25 mol/L for both salts with the amount of surface and IFT minimized at this point. In the other two salts, this point was delayed upon elevation of ionic strength and was observed at high salinity. In this case, divalent cations reduce tension rate compared to monovalent cations. Due to solubility of acidic and basic groups in water, pH of salt water illustrates an acidic trend. Results of the FTIR test confirmed solubility of these compounds as well.     

复合体系超低界面张力和碱在驱油过程中的实际作用

以物理模拟实验结果为依据并结合理论分析发现,在实际油藏的驱油过程中,础活性剂／聚合物（ASP）复合体系与原油的超低界面张力对于启动残余油滴和降低毛管阻力的作用均比以往所推断的要小;为使油／水界面张力达到超低而加入的大量强碱,将导致储层矿物的溶蚀、地层和井筒的严重结垢以及产出液的深度乳化,这对于复合驱的总体效果和效益都是不利的。因此,对于复合体系超低界面张力和碱在驱油过程中的实际作用研究应予以客观的评价,对于非超低界面张力体系驱油实际效果的研究应引起足够的重视.     

Sensitivity Analysis of Interfacial Tension Predictions for Hydrocarbon Fluids

The interfacial tension (IFT) of hydrocarbon fluids is commonly predicted by either the parachor method or the scaling law. The methods require equilibrium liquid and vapor phase composition and density. An equation of state would normally be required if experimental values are not available. However, the computation of density for simple hydrocarbons and reservoir fluids, despite the important advances achieved by cubic equations of state, still remains a weak link in these types of calculations. Thus, there exists a need to investigate the qualitative and quantitative effects, of such inaccuracies in the density, on IFT predictions. Moreover, the study presented in this work would be useful in reservoir engineering and enhanced oil recovery calculations. The results presented in this work indicate that the methods are highly sensitive to the inaccuracies in the density of both the liquid and the vapor phases. An error of around 10% in the liquid or the vapor density can result in an error of up to 200% in the estimated IFT. Two binary and one ternary mixture for which measured data on IFT, composition and density is reported in the literature form the basis of this study.     

产酸微生物作用大庆原油改善化学驱效果研究

从大庆油层水中筛选出短短芽孢杆菌HT和蜡状芽孢杆菌HP,在兼性厌氧条件下,利用原油烃为唯一碳源,降解原油中重质成分,尤其是高碳链（20碳以上）饱和烃,产生大量的胞外有机酸,可使原油酸值平均升高10倍以上．微生物作用原油后,产生的大量有机酸,在碱性条件下能与合成表面活性剂产生很好的协同作用,使微生物作用后原油与现有三元复合体系形成更低的界面张力,平均比未作用原油体系界面张力降低一个数量级,达到10^-4mN／m数量级．室内天然岩心驱油评价结果表明,微生物一三元复合驱结合可比单独三元复合驱驱油效率增加近10％（OOIP）．这一技术对大庆主力油田提高可采储量将会发挥巨大的作用．     

Experimental and modeling investigation of dynamic interfacial tension of asphaltenic-acidic crude oil/aqueous phase containing different ions

In this way,after experimental measurement of interfacial tension,different models including mono-exponential decay,dynamic adsorption models and empirical equation are used to correlate this time-dependent behavior of interfacial tension(IFT).During the modeling approach,the induction,adsorption,equilibrium,and meso-equilibrium times as well as diffusivity of surface active components known as natural surfactant including asphaltene and resin from crude oil to the interface are obtained.In addition,the surface excess concentration of surface active components at the interface and Gibbs adsorption isotherm are utilized to analyze the measured dynamic IFTs.Finally,the mechanisms of crude oil/aqueous solution IFT including(a)the activity of surface-active components and(b)surface excess concentration of them at fluid/fluid interface are proposed and discussed in details.     

In-situ hydrogen wettability characterisation for underground hydrogen storage

Hydrogen storage in subsurface aquifers or depleted gas reservoirs represents a viable long-term energy storage solution. There is currently a scarcity of subsurface petrophysical data for the hydrogen system. In this work, we determine the wettability and Interfacial Tension (IFT) of the hydrogen-brine-quartz system using captive bubble, pendant drop and in-situ 3D micro-Computed Tomography (CT) methods. Effective contact angles ranged between 29° and 39° for pressures 6.89–20.68 MPa and salinities from distilled water to 5000 ppm NaCl brine. In-situ methods, novel to hydrogen investigations, confirmed the water-wet system with the mean of the macroscopic and apparent contact angle distributions being 39.77° and 59.75° respectively. IFT decreased with increasing pressure in distilled water from 72.45 mN/m at 6.89 MPa to 69.43 mN/m at 20.68 MPa. No correlation was found between IFT and salinity for the 1000 ppm and 5000 ppm brines. Novel insights into hydrogen wetting in multiphase environments allow accurate predictions of relative permeability and capillary pressure curves for large scale simulations.     

Application of ANFIS-GA as a novel and accurate tool for estimation of interfacial tension of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon

In the recent years, the enhancement oil recovery processes become the one of the interesting topics in petroleum engineering because of declination of oil reservoirs. One of the most popular processes is the carbon dioxide injection that has special importance because of its environmentally friendly and high efficiency of displacement. The interfacial tension (IFT) between carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon is known as a key parameter in this process so in the present investigation the Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was coupled with Genetic Algorithm (GA) to create a novel tool for prediction IFT between carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon in terms of temperature, pressure, molecular weight of alkane, gas and liquid densities. The outputs of predicting model were compared with experimental IFT statistically and graphically. The comparisons showed that predicting model has acceptable accuracy in prediction of IFT of hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide.     

Potential application of biosurfactants mixtures in high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs

In this research, the interfacial behavior and emulsifying ability of biosurfactants mixtures were evaluated to investigate the potential application in high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs. Results indicated that the mixtures of biosurfactants and betaine 4# gave the lowest interfacial tension values of ～10^?3 mN/m and emulsified crude oil more effectively. Core flooding tests showed that the binary systems gave the highest oil recovery of 11%, which is more efficient than any single biosurfactant or chemical.     

Surfactant (in situ)–Surfactant (Synthetic) Interaction in Na2CO3/Surfactant/Acidic Oil Systems for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Its Contribution to Dynamic Interfacial Tension Behavior

The effect of synthetic surfactant molecular structure on the dynamic interfacial tension (DIFT) behavior in Na₂CO₃/surfactant/crude oil was investigated. Three surfactants, a nonionic (iC₁₇(EO)₁₃), an alcohol propoxy sulfate (C_14–15(PO)₈SO₄), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were considered in this study. Sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) was added to ensure complete compatibility between brine and Na₂CO₃. In Na₂CO₃/iC₁₇(EO)₁₃/oil and Na₂CO₃/C_14–15(PO)₈SO₄/oil systems, a strong synergistic effect for lowering the dynamic interfacial tension was observed, in which the dynamic IFT are initially reduced to ultralow transient minima in the range 1.1 × 10^?3–6.6 × 10^?3 mNm^?1 followed by an increment to a practically similar equilibrium value of 0.22 mNm^?1 independent of Na₂CO₃ concentration (for iC₁₇(EO)₁₃) and to decreasing equilibrium values with increasing alkali concentrations (for C_14–15(PO)₈SO₄). The observed difference in the equilibrium IFT for the two systems suggest that in both systems, the mixed interfacial film is efficient in reducing the dynamic interfacial tension to ultralow transient minima (～10^?3 mNm^?1) but the mixed film soap‐iC₁₇(EO)₁₃ is much less efficient than the mixed film soap‐C_14–15(PO)₈SO₄ in resisting soap diffusion from the interface to the bulk phases. In both systems, the synergism was attributed, in part, to the intermolecular and intramolecular ion–dipole interactions between the soap molecules and the synthetic surfactant as well as to some shielding effect of the electrostatic repulsion between the carboxylate groups by the nearby ethylene oxide (13 EO) and propylene oxide (8 PO) groups in the mixed interfacial monolayer. SDS surfactant showed a much lower synergism relative to iC₁₇(EO)₁₃ and C_14–15(PO)₈SO₄, probably due to the absence of ion–dipole interactions and shielding effect in the mixed interfacial layer at the oil–water interface.