Evaluation the role of natural surfactants from Tanacetum and Tarragon plants in EOR applications

Abstract
Nowadays, the plant extracts, as natural surfactants, are considered as part of the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods due to their high performance in reducing the interfacial tension (IFT) and environmentally friendly manner. Hence, this study focuses on the application of two new natural surfactants in EOR, which were extracted from Tanacetum (TAN) and Tarragon (TAR) plants. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the prepared natural surfactants was determined using the conductivity and IFT measurements to identify where surfactant molecules are in the bulk phase and far from the aggregation. Several measurements of IFT and contact angle (CA) of the fluid/fluid and fluid/fluid/rock systems were carried out with the presence of the prepared natural surfactants at concentrations of 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 ppm within the distilled water (DW) and brine. The obtained results of IFT showed that it was reduced from 29.5 and 28 to 5.12 and 6.57 mN/m when 5000 ppm and 1000 ppm of Tarragon added into DW and brine, respectively. While, the IFT was reduced to 2.09 and 1.87 mN/m with the presence of DW-TAN7000 and brine-TAN1000 surfactant solutions, respectively. Additionally, the minimum CAs of 30.8° and 33° of the oil droplets on the surface of the carbonate rock were measured with the presence of the DW based TAR5000 and TAN1000, respectively. Ultimately, the results of the oil displacements using the carbonate core plugs illustrated 11.7% and 13.2% increases in the recovery factor using TAR1000 and TAN1000 solutions.

Author
Barham Majeed

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2022.119576

Publisher
Journal of Molecular Liquids

ISSN

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