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A review on chemical flooding methods applied in enhanced oil recovery

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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS ISSN 1982-0593
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.

A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN

ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
1
A. Gurgel*, 2M. C. P. A. Moura, 3T. N. C. Dantas,
2
E. L. Barros Neto, 2A. A. Dantas Neto
1
Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Química, Campus Universitário, UFV,
Av. P. H. Rolfs – S/N, Viçosa/MG – Brasil, CEP 36570-000.
2
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Departamento de Engenharia Química.
Campus Universitário, UFRN, Lagoa Nova, Natal/RN – Brasil, CEP 59072-970.
3
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Departamento de Química.
Campus Universitário, UFRN, Lagoa Nova, Natal/RN – Brasil, CEP 59072-970.

* To whom all correspondence should be addressed.

Address: Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Química, Campus Universitário, UFV,
Av. P. H. Rolfs – S/N, CEP: 36570-000, Viçosa/MG – Brazil.
Telephone: +55 31 3899-3208 / +55 31 3899-2370
E-mail: agurgel@ufv.br

Abstract. In spite of the recent worldwide interest for alternative sources of energy,
with especial and strategic interest in fuels derived from renewable products, the
situation of petroleum in many countries stills drives much concern. Brazil, for
example, is continuously advancing in the discovery of novel oil reservoirs and in the
devise of potential ways to exploit oil both onshore and offshore. Many research
projects are joining industry and university personnel, aiming to improve the technology
to enhance oil productivity. In addition to the primary recovery techniques and several
physical methods conceived as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods, the development
of EOR processes based on operations which involve chemicals is greatly promising,
many of which employing surfactants. Knowledge on the interfacial properties between
oil, water and solid rock reservoirs, especially under extreme conditions, with
occasional presence of natural gas, is important to better implement the EOR method. In
view of this, surfactant-based chemical systems have been reported by innumerous
academic studies and technological operations throughout the years as potential
candidates for EOR activities. In this article, focus is given on recent advances effected
by the application of chemical methods in oil recovery.

Keywords: surfactants; chemical methods; EOR, interfacial properties

1. INTRODUCTION reservoir wettability (Yangming et al., 2003).

One of the most challenging activities in the
petroleum industry refers to exploration and
further exploitation of old and novel oil
reservoirs. The intrinsic, natural capacity of
fields to produce oil is promoted via primary
recovery techniques. Due to physical
constraints, e.g. reduced well pressure or high
level of oil trapping, productivity is hindered
and eventually ceases. During the recovery
process, the original balance is perturbed and
changes in the composition of the crude oil
occur, which induce important effects on the
At this point, provided economical aspects are
observed and fulfilled, secondary and tertiary
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods can be
implemented, especially in locations where
heavy oils or mature fields are encountered
(Babadagli, 2007).
Chilingar and Yen (1983) thoroughly
investigated several reservoir cores (limestone,
dolomitic limestone, calcitic dolomite and
dolomite), to conclude that 15% of them were
strongly oil-wet, 65% were oil-wet, 12% had
intermediate wettability and 8% were water-

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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.
wet. Bearing in mind that the majority of the
petroleum reserves currently detected are
accommodated in carbonate matrices (Austad
and Standnes, 2003), modification of the
wettability of such reservoirs is a very
important issue when further oil recovery is
desired.
These EOR methods are devised with the
purpose of overcoming the capillary forces
which are responsible for the retention of a
large amount of the residual oil in underground
reservoirs, and are normally quantified by the
Young-Laplace equations in Interfacial
Sciences (Schramm et al., 2003). Therefore,
knowledge about the rock structure (typically,
type of material and sizes and distribution of
pores) is important to establish the extent of
relative oil and water saturations, which are
affected by the capillary pressure (Pc) generated
thereby. In fact, capillary pressure is a very
useful parameter when classifying a rock
sample as oil- or water-wet. Equation 1 gives
the value of Pc in terms of the local interfacial
tension, γ, and the curvature of the interface
(C), which is determined by the pore radius, R,
and the contact angle, θ.
2 γ cos θ
Pc = γ ⋅ C =
R recovery methods are usually capable of
Furthermore, surface wettability is
intrinsically related to contact angle,
particularly in the oil reservoirs, where often
water, oil and gas phases may be in contact.
The spreading coefficient σSLG can be defined,
as in Equation 2, in terms of the interfacial
tensions developed between each pair of
contacting phases, namely the solid-gas (γSG),
the solid-liquid (γSL) and the liquid-gas (γLG)
interfaces, and is useful to describe the wetting
properties of a rock matrix.
σ SLG = γ SG − γ SL − γ LG
Direct measurements of γSG are rather
difficult to make. However, when equilibrium
is established at the contact point of all three
phases, according to the finite contact angle θ
84
between the two fluids and the rock, then
equation 3 holds:
γ SG = γ SL + γ LG cos θ (3)
The equilibrium pressure thus established
can be altered by injection fluids during oil
wells prospection. The composition of such
fluids is based on mixtures of liquids and
solids, in various compositions according to
each specific application. Among the
parameters to be observed when selecting the
most appropriate fluid are pressure,
temperature, chemical factors, economical
factors and contamination levels. For example,
when the viscosity of the injected fluid is lower
than that of the fluid to be displaced, the
injected mixture flows more swiftly than the
original fluid across the porous medium, often
finding preferred paths. Because of high
interfacial tensions, the capacity of the injected
fluid to displace the oil is impaired, resulting in
high contents of residual oil in the wells. The
stability of the final mixture must be
guaranteed to maintain high extraction yields.
Since petroleum naturally exists in certain
underground formations where it is adsorbed
onto the pores of the rocks, conventional
(1)
removing only 30% of the original oil in place
(Curbelo et al., 2007; Dantas Neto et al., 2008).
This can be basically attributed to three aspects:
high viscosity of the oil, geology of the
formation and high interfacial tensions between
the fluids stored in the reservoir.
Figure 1 is a simplified chart of some EOR
methods normally carried out in petroleum
exploitation activities. Many secondary
methods basically involve perturbation of the
unproductive reservoir via some physical
modification, for example, water, gas or steam
flooding, however with low final oil recovery.
(2) In particular, miscible and thermal methods can
be useful to alter the viscosity and thereby the
mobility of oil trapped in rocks due to some
interfacial effect, with a combination of the
above-mentioned capillary forces and viscous
forces. As a result, more oil can be driven out
of the pores. Thermal methods, for instance,
mainly comprise steam injection or in situ
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.
Figure 1. Some enhanced oil recovery methods (LPG = liquefied petroleum gas).
combustion, but some specific techniques may
be applied, either separately or combined with
each other. In addition to the ones shown in
Figure 1, one may cite the steam-assisted
gravity drainage (SAGD), the water-
alternating-with-gas process (WAG), the
steam-alternating solvent process (SAS), the
expanded-solvent SAGD process (ES-SAGD)
and the vapor extraction process (VAPEX)
(Ali, 2003; Barillas et al., 2006 and 2008; Nasr
et al., 2003a and 2003b; Law et al., 2003a and
2003b; Zhao et al., 2005a and 2005b).
In all cases, it is important to consider the
distribution of fluids in a reservoir (water, oil
and even gas, which can be accommodated in a
rock reservoir). In lab tests, contact angle
measurements are important in directing the
applications, since capillary or adhesion
tensions inside the formation are affected when
it is perturbed. This ultimately enables removal
of oil via an appropriate extraction process.
Therefore, surface properties like wettability
must be investigated and properly accounted
for. In the majority of oil reservoirs, water
preferably wets the solid surfaces. Since gas is
the least likely fluid to wet the solid surface, it
is stored in the cores of the pores, with oil
occupying intermediary positions. In some
spots, however, where the formation
characteristics are changed during exploration,
the rock surface is coated with oil. This
situation requires more attention from
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engineers and operation personnel in the
extraction activities.
As far as surface properties are concerned,
oil extraction activities are greatly optimized by
EOR methods that employ some kind of
chemical technique, and find huge applicability
when secondary methods fail to improve
reservoir productivity. Some of these
techniques are cited in Figure 1, with particular
emphasis to the ASP methods (Alkaline-
Surfactant-Polymer). The lowering of tensions
between water and oil is the main driving force
that enables the use of such methods. Changes
in fluids viscosities upon addition of chemicals
like polymer mixtures are also observed and
present some advantages. In conventional oil
recovery activities via waterflooding, low
yields are normally observed, basically as a
result of high oil viscosity and high interfacial
tensions developed when water is injected,
besides geological aspects of the formation.
Seawater injection may improve oil removal
efficiency, partly because of varying ionic
strength and surface charge (Zhang et al.,
2007).
Surface phenomena are ubiquitous in EOR
activities. It is not surprising, then, that
operations based on surfactant and/or polymer
adsorption phenomena can be potentially
advantageous, because of the interesting
physicochemical properties of micellar
solutions, emulsions, fracturing fluids and, in
85
BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.
special, microemulsions. The ability of
surfactant molecules to adsorb onto surfaces
and modify their properties, and also to interact
with polymers and other chemical species,
creates many possibilities to be examined and
tested. Also, the heterogeneous geological
nature of the oil reservoir must always be
considered when selecting a suitable chemical
system to be used in oil recovery. Different
surfactant and/or polymer molecules can be
used with this purpose, but the search for the
best system involves careful investigation on
the formulation that provides the highest yields,
especially in mixed systems. Compatibility
between the different species tested, in terms of
chain length, hydrophilic-lipophilic balance
(HLB) and chemical nature for example, is one
aspect to be initially examined (Hankins and
Harwell, 1997; Shiao et al., 1998; Standnes and
Austad, 2003). Furthermore, very extreme
conditions established by varying pH,
temperature, pressure and composition (salt and
inorganic compounds) are encountered in the
reservoirs, and novel surfactants with a
potential to be used in EOR activities must
support such conditions and interact favorably
with other chemicals. Biodegradability is also
desirable, as in alkylpolyglucosides and
pyrrolidones (Iglauer et al. 2004;
Somasundaran and Zhang, 2006). Regarding
this, scattering techniques, surface tension
measurements and calorimetric experiments, in
particular, can be successfully carried out in
order to provide valuable information on how
surfactants and polymers, when mixed together
under specific conditions, interact to provide
certain final properties useful in EOR activities.
When studying interactions between polymers
and surfactants, an experimental parameter
similar to the critical micelle concentration
(CMC) is introduced as the critical aggregation
concentration (CAC). At the CAC, a
cooperative process develops whereby
surfactant micelles are formed and become
enfolded by the flexible polymer
macromolecules. The reader is encouraged to
consult some reports by Loh and co-workers
for further explanation on such techniques and
analyses of some experimental results with
chemicals that can have potential applications
86
in EOR (da Silva and Loh, 2000; da Silva et al.,
2002; Loh et al., 2004; da Silva et al., 2004;
Lof et al., 2007; Niemiec and Loh, 2008).
A typical surfactant-based flooding process
applied in petroleum fields is illustrated in
Figure 2. Surfactant solutions are injected into
an appropriate site, away from the production
well, in order to create very low interfacial
tensions that will enable the mobilization of oil
trapped in the reservoir, when other non-
chemical methods fail to improve the extraction
efficiency. Normally, a mobile zone should be
maintained, with propitious mobility ratios, and
this can be achieved by incorporating polymers
and alkali in the surfactant formulation, thus
characterizing the ASP mixtures or solutions.
An oil bank is then formed by the mobilized
oil, which is ultimately driven to the production
well for enhanced recovery.
In contrast, oil reservoirs could be damaged
by insoluble residues left by the surfactant-
and/or polymer-based formulations, with
obvious environmental impacts. In view of this,
a continuously developing line of research aims
to propose novel chemical systems to be used
in EOR activities, with the purpose of
minimizing or even eliminating this problem.
The paramount importance of surfactant-based
chemical systems, however, has been
demonstrated by innumerous academic studies
and technological operations throughout the
years. In this article, we aim to focus on the
recent advances obtained by the application of
chemical methods in oil recovery.
2. EVOLUTION OF THE CHEMICAL
METHODS IN EOR ACTIVITIES
In general, EOR chemical methods are
classified in terms of the main chemical agents
used to modify the equilibrium established in
the reservoirs after recovery via conventional
or physical methods. We particularly focus our
attention on general EOR activities involving
the use of polymers, surfactants, foams and
certain chemicals such as alkali (see Figure 1),
or suitable mixtures containing them, as in
polymer-alkaline, surfactant-polymer and
alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding
mixtures (Li et al., 2000; Nedjhioui et al.,
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.

Figure 2. Schematic of a surfactant-based flooding process applied to a petroleum field.

2005). The aim in using such varied systems is
to reach the target recovery factor for the 70%
of the original oil in place which, in average,
still remains in the reservoirs after conventional
production, basically via a flooding mechanism
which expels the oil out of the pores of the rock
(for instance, the surfactant-based flooding
process depicted in Figure 2).
In surfactant flooding, adsorption
phenomena like chain interactions in solution
and self-assembly, which affect interfacial
tension and interfacial rheology and occur
within the reservoir porous medium, play an
essential role in determining the final oil
recovery factor (Ferrari et al., 2004; Ravera et
al., 2005). The efficiency of the process is
reduced because of surfactant loss by
adsorption, impairing the reduction of
interfacial tension between residual water and
crude oil, which ultimately renders the process
technically unviable. It is reported on the
literature that surfactants should be used at
concentrations above the CMC for ionic
molecules (Curbelo et al., 2007 and 2008) and
around the CMC value for nonionic ones
(Fjelde et al., 1995). In particular, when multi-
valent ions are present in the water, surfactant
solubility may be hindered, via specific
mechanisms which can be dependent on
temperature. The choice of the more
appropriate surfactant to be used in EOR
applications, therefore, must also contemplate
these aspects, as in the case of selecting or
synthesizing a surfactant whose Krafft point is
lower than the minimal temperature detected in
the desired application (Shinoda and Fontell,
1995).
A typical experimental procedure to
optimize and implement a suitable chemical
method employing surfactants may involve
construction of a fluid injection prototype,
insulation of the porous medium simulating the
original well formations, determination of the
CMC of each surfactant tested, saturation of
cores with reservoir fluids (brine and
petroleum, according to the original reservoir

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GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.
characteristics) and determination of porosity
and permeability of the medium, relative to oil
and water. Although applied in surfactant-
based processes, for example with micellar
solutions, emulsions or even microemulsions
(Dantas Neto et al., 2008), this methodology is
also suggested for other EOR activities
employing chemicals, particularly when
polymer-surfactant synergistic effects or
interactions are to be investigated. This
optimization or simulation approach has been
frequently reported, as a means of reducing
material loss or consumption and of increasing
efficiency, allowing for selection of an
appropriate EOR process based on the reservoir
characteristics and intended results (Gharbi,
2000; Liu et al., 2004; Gharbi, 2005; Pires et
al., 2006; Hognesen et al., 2006; Hou et al.,
2008). This is particularly the case when
chromatographic separation effects involving
the surfactant molecules take place during
specific applications, as in surfactant-alkaline
flooding. Material loss is also caused by
adsorption on reservoir rocks, precipitation and
changes in rock wettability (Somasundaran and
Zhang, 2006). The optimization also involves
combination of different techniques, as
reported by Babadagli and co-workers (2005),
who indicate the use of a waterflooding process
followed by injection of dilute surfactant
solutions when dealing with a fractured
carbonate reservoir containing light oil. These
techniques, when combined, yield higher final
oil recovery than the individual waterflooding
or surfactant flooding methods.
Microemulsions are also potential
candidates in enhanced oil recovery, especially
because of the ultra-low interfacial tension
values attained between the contacting oil and
water microphases that form them.
Microemulsion-assisted EOR injection was
first attempted in 1963 by the Marathon Oil
Company, which designed a process called
Maraflood®. Later, in the early 1970’s, Healy
and Reed reported on some fundamentals of
microemulsion flooding, especially viscosity,
interfacial tension and salinity, relating the
results on phase behavior of self-assembled
systems to the Winsor’s concepts (Healy and
88
Reed, 1973; Healy and Reed, 1974; Dantas
Neto et al., 2008).
The British Petroleum (BP) oil company
devised a method whereby co-injection of a
low-concentration mixture of surfactant and
biopolymer is effected, denominated Low-
Tension Polymer Flood (LTPF). Austad et al.
(1994ab) discuss on the physicochemical
aspects involved in this method, particularly on
the importance of understanding the
interactions existing within specific polymer-
surfactant and microemulsion systems applied
in EOR. The studies of Austad and co-workers
evolved during the 1990’s on chemical
flooding of oil reservoirs, with detailed reports
on positive and negative effects of chemicals in
oil recovery. These include:
• Use of xanthan gradient at constant salinity
in a three-phase LTPF process, in Berea
sandstone samples, with alkyl-o-xylene
sulfonate as surfactant, n-heptane as oil,
and NaCl solution as injection fluid,
observing chromatographic separation of
surfactant and polymer under certain
conditions (Austad and Taugbol, 1995a);
• Adaptation of the LTPF process mentioned
above to include the presence of xanthan
and dodecyl-o-xylene sulfonate as
surfactant in the aqueous mixture used as
injection fluid, constituting a so-called low-
tension polymer water flood (LTPWF)
process (Austad and Taugbol, 1995b),
which is not effective if the surfactant
concentration is relatively low;
• Use of an alkyl propoxy-ethoxy sulfate-type
surfactant in a LTPWF process, which is
further enhanced by dissociative surfactant-
polymer interactions in solution and by the
effect of polymer on the flow performance
of the surfactant in the porous media
(Taugbol et al., 1995);
• Investigation on the effects of physical
parameters, like temperature and pressure,
and system composition on the optimum
conditions for application of
multicomponent chemical systems in EOR
(Austad and Strand, 1996; Austad et al.,
1996);
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.
• Experimental observation of the imbibition
mechanism of brine solutions in water-wet
or mixed-wed, low-permeable chalk
material in the presence and absence of
surfactant molecules, aiming for the
recovery of oil originally found in the
reservoir samples submitted to different
aging times in the n-heptane-crude oil
mixtures used (Milter and Austad, 1996ab);
• Observation of the spontaneous imbibition
of low-permeable chalk material with
aqueous solutions of alkyltrimethyl
ammonium bromides (cationic surfactants)
and alkylpropoxyethoxy sulfates (anionic
surfactants), which are capable of
enhancing water wettability, enabling
studies on both oil-wet and water-wet chalk
samples (Austad et al., 1998);
• Use of chemical systems comprising
xanthan and copolymers, alkylpropoxy-
ethoxy sulfates, crude oil, n-heptane and
synthetic seawater to observe dynamic
adsorption phenomena of surfactants onto
sandstone core samples, as an adaptation of
the LTPWF process (Austad et al., 1997);
• Possibility to alter the original wettability
of chalk reservoirs by tuning the properties
of surfactant systems, namely the values of
CMC, HLB and interfacial tension, besides
any steric effects derived from specific
surfactant structures, as in ammonium
quaternary salts (e.g. dodecyltrimethyl
ammonium bromide and similar
molecules). As a result, imbibition rates
may be altered and increase oil recovery
rates (Standnes and Austad, 2000ab).
In these reports, Austad and co-works have
compared cationic, anionic and nonionic
surfactants, showing that cationics are more
efficient. Also, the paramount role of
spontaneous imbibition, whereby capillary
forces draw a wetting fluid into a porous
medium, is evident in EOR activities
employing surfactant- and/or polymer-based
mixtures. This is opposed to the forced
imbibition phenomena, which occur mainly due
to viscous displacement (Babadagli, 2006).
The occurrence of imbibition via
spontaneous mechanisms is especially
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interesting in fractured reservoirs. Morrow and
Mason (2001) report on researches that indicate
the use of surfactants expanding from
laboratory to field tests. However many results
are obtained for specific reservoirs, and much
has yet to be understood. For example, the
spontaneous water imbibition into oil-wet
carbonate cores which present a wide variation
in porous structure is reported by Standnes and
co-workers (2002), who tested a nonionic
ethoxylated alcohol and dodecyltrimethyl
ammonium bromide as surfactants. This EOR
process was efficiently implemented because of
alterations in the wettability of the cores, from
oil-wet to water-wet conditions. This is an
important experimental result, since
spontaneous imbibition usually will not occur
in preferentially oil-wet reservoirs and the
imbibition rates are generally low when
surfactants are added, due to decreasing
capillary forces occurring because of reduction
in the oil-water interfacial tension (Strand et al.,
2003; Standnes, 2004). The surfactant CMC is
again an important property that must be
observed when designing its EOR application.
According to the same authors, because the
CMC decreases with increasing salinity at
relatively low temperatures (ambient to 40°C),
the oil recovery from oil-wet carbonate rock
samples is delayed, which does not seem to be
case when temperature is increased to around
70°C. Also, certain surfactants are more
capable of changing the rock wettability from
oil-wet to more water-wet conditions, like the
cationic ones derived from coconut oil reported
by Standnes and Austad (2003), and to less oil-
wet conditions, like the ethoxylated nonionic
and anionic structures investigated by Ayirala
and co-workers (2006), apparently below their
CMC’s. This is a clear indication that all
physical and chemical aspects involved in such
applications must be properly accounted for.
Babadagli (2002) reports on the dynamics of
capillary imbibition effected in Berea sandstone
and Indiana limestone by mixtures of Triton®
X-100 (a polyethoxylated nonionic surfactant),
sodium chloride and polyacrylamide in
different compositions, further enhanced by the
action of heat, providing information on
specific conditions that cause weak or strong
89
BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.
capillary imbibition in both water- and oil-wet
matrices. Later, Babadagli (2003) compared
different EOR processes (waterflooding,
thermal, and chemical with surfactant, with
polymer and with NaCl brine) in the same rock
samples (Berea, with 20% porosity and 500
milidarcies permeability; and Indiana, with
17% porosity and 8.5 milidarcies permeability)
with respect to oil viscosity, matrix wettability
and matrix boundary conditions. With Berea
sandstone and heavy oil samples, significant
increases in ultimate recovery and recovery
rates were observed with the use of t-
octylphenoxypoly-ethoxyethanol as nonionic
surfactant, as compared to the application of
brine. These effects are far more pronounced
than those detected with the Indiana limestone.
In this case, only slight increases in recovery
are noticed when the surfactant is added, the
same being observed in assays employing
polyacrylamide as polymer. Complementing
these observations, Yildiz and co-workers
(2006) also discuss on the effects that core
shape have on spontaneous imbibition
(cylindrical cores possessing the highest rates,
square prism cores featuring intermediate ones,
and triangular prism cores being the least
effective). It should not be forgotten, however,
that careful selection of surfactant structures
and identification of the effects that surfactant
properties have on capillary imbibition must
always guide the implementation of the EOR
process (Babadagli and Boluk, 2005).
Interestingly, foams can be applied in EOR
and stimulation activities with advantages over
physical techniques, such as gas or steam
injection, and surfactant- and/or polymer-based
processes, provided tuning of the
physicochemical properties of foams is
undertaken in order to enable their
technological applications. The main properties
of foams which are exploited in EOR are
higher viscosity than that of gases, their
dispersed nature, which affects mobility and
permeability in the porous medium, and low
density, which helps reducing the effects of
gravity forces, fingering and channeling flow,
thereby improving the occupation in a
heterogeneous reservoir and enhancing sweep
and displacement efficiencies (Huang and
90
Chang, 2000; Cheng et al., 2004; Li et al.,
2006; Yan et al., 2006). In heterogeneous
fracture systems, actually, the foam-assisted
sweep efficiency can be improved by greatly
reducing the amount of surfactant needed, due
to fact that the foam will be able to occupy
smaller fractures, thus requiring less surfactant
solution. However, in low-permeability
matrices (1 to 10 milidarcies), the rate and
mechanism of foam propagation are not fully
understood, partly because of limitations due to
pressure gradients established after foam
injection (Siddiqui et al., 2002), which affect its
stability. Moreover, Mannhardt and Svorstol
(2001) highlight the necessity of selecting a
suitable surfactant at a sufficient concentration
required for foam propagation, which derives
from surfactant adsorption on the reservoir
surface, by combining propagation rate with
foam viscosity and oil saturation.
3. CONCLUSIONS
In enhanced or tertiary oil recovery
techniques, a profusive research area is
dedicated to the design and implementation of
novel chemical methods, mostly as adaptations
of common processes already in place. In
particular, mixtures of surface-active chemical
substances can be incorporated in injection
formulations, aiming for further oil
displacement which can be effected by
attaining ultra-low interfacial tensions and
reduced fluid viscosity in the oil reservoirs. In
this review, we have aimed to highlight some
recent advances in the use of chemicals in
EOR, focusing on the fundamental aspects
involved in the reported applications.
Knowledge about interfacial science,
physicochemical properties of chemical
systems and geological characteristics of the
rock matrices is required in order to devise
high-yield processes, often aided by
optimization and modeling techniques. The
technological importance of surfactant-based
self-assembled systems is once again pointed
out, as the central subject of the works carried
out by many research groups throughout the
years.
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS
GURGEL, A.; MOURA, M. C. P. A.; DANTAS, T. N. C.; BARROS NETO, E. L., DANTAS NETO, A. A. “A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL FLOODING METHODS APPLIED IN ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY”. Brazilian Journal of Petroleum and Gas. v. 2, n. 2, p. 83-95, 2008.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge financial support
from some Brazilian institutions: CNPq,
CAPES, FINEP and PRH-ANP 14, in the
execution of several scientific projects in
petroleum and surfactant science and
technology.
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