Application of Novel Surfactants with Co-Solvent Character for Heavy Oil Recovery

Abstract

A new class of ultra-short hydrophobe surfactants with co-solvent character was investigated as a sole additive to conventional polymer flooding for heavy oil recovery. No alkali was used for emulsification. The surfactants tested are composed of a short hydrophobe (phenol in this research) extended by a small number of propylene oxide (PO) and sufficient ethylene oxide (EO) units to achieve aqueous stability: phenol-xPO-yEO. Results are presented for the selection of ultra-short hydrophobe surfactants, aqueous stability, emulsion phase behavior, and oil-displacement through a glass-bead pack at 368 K. Results show that 2 wt% phenol-4PO-20EO was able to reduce the interfacial tension between oil and NaCl brine to 0.39 dynes/cm, in comparison to 11 dynes/cm with no surfactant, at 368 K. Water flooding, 70-cp polymer flooding, and surfactant-improved polymer flooding were conducted for displacement of 276-cp oil through a glass-bead pack that represents the clean-sand faces of a heavy oil reservoir in Alberta, Canada. The oil recovery at 2 pore-volumes of injection was 84% with the surfactant-improved polymer flooding, which was 54% and 22 % greater than the water flooding and the polymer flooding, respectively. Results suggest a new opportunity of enhanced heavy oil recovery by adding a slug of one non-ionic surfactant with co-solvent character to conventional polymer flooding.