Surfactant Flooding for EOR Using Sodium Lignosulfonate Synthesized from Bagasse

Abstract

Surfactant injection is one of the types of chemical injections used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process. Surfactant can increase the interfacial tension between oil and water in the rock matrix. The surfactant used is an anionic surfactant, which is one of the lignosulfonate surfactants known as sodium lignosulfonate (SLS) surfactant derived from lignin. Bagasse is one of the raw materials having a high content of lignin (24–25%). The synthesized bagasse becomes lignosulfonate used as an isolation of lignin and transformed into sodium lignosulfonate by sulfonation process. Based on the characteristic test, the bagasse’s SLS surfactant has some qualified characteristics which are a good aqueous stability, clear solution and not causing turbidity, and capability to form middle-phase microemulsion with light oil. Synthesized SLS has a hydrophilic– lipophilic balance (HLB) value of 11.6 which can be classified as oil in water (O/W) emulsion. Middle-phase emulsion as a characteristic SLS surfactant affects the performance of the SLS surfactant injection. So the use of sodium lignosulfonate surfactant synthesized from bagasse is a challenge to be developed further as a surfactant flooding.