Chapters authored
Hydrophobic Polymers Flooding
Crude oil and other petroleum products are crucial to the global economy today due to increasing energy demand approximately (~1.5%) per year and significant oil remaining after primary and secondary oil recovery (~45-55% of original oil in place, OOIP), which accelerates the development of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies. Polymer flooding through hydrophobically associated polyacrylamides (HAPAM) is a widely implemented EOR-technique, so they attracted much attention on both academic and industrial scales. Hydrophobically associating polyacrylamide (HAPAM) prepared by free radical emulsion polymerization of acrylamide (AM) monomer, divinyl sulfone as hydrophobic crosslinked moiety and surfmers, to chemically anchor a surfmer and hydrophobic crosslinker moiety onto the back bone of acrylamide chain. After that, polymeric nanocomposite was prepared through copolymerization of prepared HAPAM with different molar ratios of silica nanoparticles through one shot synthesis. Rheological properties for the prepared composites were evaluated. Wettability evaluation carried through quantitative and qualitative techniques where the results indicate novel polymers ability to alter rock wettability from oil-wet to water- wet.
Part of the book: Application and Characterization of Surfactants
Improving the Heavy Oil Recovery by Surfactants from Wastes
The amount of crude oil available must be sufficient to meet global demand. As a result, the oil industry has been obliged to recover oil from more difficult places and develop methods for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This chapter focuses on the phase behavior properties inside the reservoir in connection with surfactant flooding and oil/brine systems in relation to enhanced oil recovery. To achieve this purpose, three groups of nonionic and anionic surfactants were prepared from waste and local materials. The surface activity and thermodynamic properties for three surfactant groups have been investigated at reservoir conditions. The solubilization parameters and relative phase volume were also studied to determine the optimal solubilization parameters and optimal salinity. The dynamic IFT and contact angle were measured at the optimal salinity. The sand pack flooding by using surfactant system predicted the performance of microemulsion in oil recovery by surfactant individually and its blends on chemical flooding system in semipilot EOR unit.
Part of the book: Enhanced Oil Recovery