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Influence of Surfactant Adsorption on Surface-Functionalized Silica Nanoparticles for Gas Foam Stability

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Nanoparticles: An Emerging Technology for Oil Production and Processing Applications

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology ((LNNST,volume 32))

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Abstract

Insufficient foam stability hinders the applications of the foam injection technique for enhanced oil recovery. To date, to improve foam stability, nanoparticles have been synergistically used with surfactants. Thus, evaluating the interactions between nanoparticles and surfactants is essential to understand and improve foam stability. In a surfactant solution involving nanoparticle dispersions, nanoparticles and ionic surfactants possess net surface charges that lead to electrostatic interaction-induced adsorption of surfactant molecules on nanoparticles. The adsorption of surfactants on nanoparticles changes their surface wettability, leading to their migration to the bubble-fluid interface formed by the foam. In this work, silica nanoparticles with different surface characteristics were used in conjunction with alpha olefin sulfonate as a surfactant to stabilize natural gas foams. The incorporation of nanoparticles to natural gas foams improved surfactant performance by 70%. Besides, nanoparticle-surfactant interactions were analyzed through adsorption experiments to provide insights into the effects of nanomaterials on the stability of natural gas foams. The adsorption of the surfactant is higher on silica nanoparticles that exhibit the lowest acidic surface and surface charge in comparison with the evaluated nanomaterials, which substantially affect electrostatic interaction-driven surfactant adsorption on the nanoparticles. The foam stability tests showed that the surfactant/nanoparticle ratio is critical to improving foam stability for each nanomaterial, because high surfactant adsorption can decrease the foam stability. For materials with higher adsorption affinity, to obtain highly stable foams, the amount of nanoparticles was reduced by 50% compared with the materials with lower adsorption affinity. The optimal surfactant/nanoparticle ratio with the lowest nanoparticle amount, which led to the most stable foam obtained, was evaluated at reservoir conditions in a natural gas core flooding test. The results showed an 18% increase in oil recovery in the presence of surfactant solutions with nanoparticles, indicating mitigation of gas injection drawbacks due to the blockage of preferential channels.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge COLCIENCIAS, ANH, and Universidad Nacional de Colombia for their support provided through the agreement 272-2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Investigación en Fenómenos de Superficie–Michael Polanyi, Departamento de Química y Petróleos, Facultad de Minas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín, Medellín, Colombia

    Yira Hurtado, Daniel López, Farid B. Cortés & Camilo A. Franco

  2. Grupo de Investigación en Yacimientos de Hidrocarburos, Departamento de Química y Petróleos, Facultad de Minas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín, Medellín, Colombia

    Sergio H. Lopera

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  1. Yira Hurtado
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  2. Daniel López
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  4. Farid B. Cortés
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  5. Camilo A. Franco
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Correspondence to Farid B. Cortés or Camilo A. Franco .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Nashaat N. Nassar

  2. Grupo de Investigación en Fenómenos de Superficie–Michael Polanyi, Departamento de Química y Petróleos Facultad de Minas Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín, Medellín, Colombia

    Farid B. Cortés

  3. Grupo de Investigación en Fenómenos de Superficie–Michael Polanyi, Departamento de Química y Petróleos Facultad de Minas Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín, Medellín, Colombia

    Camilo A. Franco

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Hurtado, Y., López, D., Lopera, S.H., Cortés, F.B., Franco, C.A. (2021). Influence of Surfactant Adsorption on Surface-Functionalized Silica Nanoparticles for Gas Foam Stability. In: Nassar, N.N., Cortés, F.B., Franco, C.A. (eds) Nanoparticles: An Emerging Technology for Oil Production and Processing Applications. Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12051-5_9

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