The synergization of silica nanoparticle and sodium dodecyl sulfate for chemical flooding application

Abstract

Nowadays, enhanced oil recovery is vital in improving the oil recovery. However, the oil productions keep depleting due to production problem such as high surface tension and interfacial tension reservoirs. Therefore, chemical flooding is one of the methods used in enhanced oil recovery. The synergy between Silica nanoparticle and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate has been proposed as a compound for chemical flooding in enhanced oil recovery in this project. The major aim of this study was to measure the effectiveness of synergization between Silica (SiO2) nanoparticles SDS with different injection ratio by measuring the oil recovery using chemical flooding. After the synergization of surfactant with nanosilica solution take place, the surface tension and interfacial tension test have been conducted to identify the optimum concentration. The results showed that the optimum concentration for SDS is 2000 ppm with surface tension (ST) and interfacial tension (IFT) are 33.5 and 36.0 mN/m respectively. When the SiO2 nanoparticles were added, it showed that 6000 ppm was the optimum concentration with reduction in surface tension and IFT to 31.0 and 34.5 mN/m respectively. The 20,000 ppm brine and paraffin oil have been injected into the sandpack followed by waterflooding and chemical flooding. The results from the experiment presented that the oil recovery for waterflooding were in between 23% to 28% therefore, more oil left in the sandpack. Then, surfactant with nanosilica solution was injected with 20,000 ppm of brine as a slug with injection ratio in between 0.1 to 0.5 as tertiary recovery. It showed that the oil recovery increases up to 48% for 0.1 of injection ratio and 64% for 0.5 injection ratio. As a conclusion, it is proved that the synergization of SiO2 nanoparticle and SDS is applicable for chemical flooding as tertiary recovery because in can recover up to 64% of oil production.