Design of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery

A detailed investigation has been made on interfacial and rheological properties of alkali, polymer and surfactant system. The experimental data on physico-chemical properties were analyzed to find an optimum formulation of different chemicals for ASP flooding. Experimentally it has been found that the surface tension and rheological behavior of surfactants and polymers solutions are significantly influenced by salts and alkalis. A new eco- friendly surfactant was extracted from soap nut and derivative of SDS was synthesized and their interfacial properties for chemical flooding are very much attracting. The additional recovery of oil over water flooding was ~19% with natural surfactant-polymer and ~24% when only alkali-natural surfactant-polymer was used. A series of flooding experiments were conducted through Sand Pack with different composition of alkali, surfactant and polymer. Different sets of ASP flooding gives the additional oil recovery ~23-31% over water flooding. SDS derivative gives additional oil recovery ~31% using very small concentration of surfactant whereas this result gives comparatively at higher concentration of SDS solution.