Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and

Environmental Effects

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ueso20

Temperature effects on alkaline flooding for heavy

oil recovery in heterogeneous and homogeneous
porous media: Pore scale evaluation

Esmaeil Darash, Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji, Arezou Jafari, Arsalan

Parvareh & Omid Alizadeh

To cite this article: Esmaeil Darash, Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji, Arezou Jafari, Arsalan
Parvareh & Omid Alizadeh (2023) Temperature effects on alkaline flooding for heavy oil
recovery in heterogeneous and homogeneous porous media: Pore scale evaluation, Energy
Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 45:2, 4853-4869, DOI:
10.1080/15567036.2023.2184432
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2023.2184432

Published online: 25 Apr 2023.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 43

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ueso20
ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
2023, VOL. 45, NO. 2, 4853–4869
https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2023.2184432

Temperature effects on alkaline flooding for heavy oil recovery in

heterogeneous and homogeneous porous media: Pore scale
evaluation
Esmaeil Darasha, Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji b
, Arezou Jafari c
, Arsalan Parvarehd,
and Omid Alizadehe
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran; bDepartment of
Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran; cFaculty of Chemical
Engineering, Department of Petroleum Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; dChemical Engineering
and Petroleum Faculty, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran; eDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Rasht
Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Among the various methods of chemical enhanced oil recovery, alkaline Received 15 July 2021
flooding has a better potential to increase oil recovery in reservoirs contain­ Revised 19 September 2022
ing acidic crude oil. This research investigated the effect of temperature on Accepted 20 September 2022
alkaline flooding (sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate) on the KEYWORDS
enhanced oil recovery in two homogeneous and heterogeneous micromo­ Alkaline flooding; high
dels at temperatures of 25, 50, 75 and 90°C. Evaluation of the effect of temperature; homogeneous
temperature on oil recovery in micromodel experiments showed that sodium and heterogeneous
hydroxide increased the pH of the environment at low temperatures (25 and micromodels; interfacial
50°C) due to its higher alkalinity and, this issue shows greater ability to tension; viscosity
emulsification and reduce interfacial tension, which ultimately increases oil
recovery. In contrast, high temperatures (75 and 90°C) have a negative effect
on oil recovery, so that oil recovery is greatly reduced. The high temperature
causes the increased rate of the reaction between the crude oil sample and
alkaline solutions, which in turn reduces the effect of IFT and, weakening the
uniform enrichment of in situ surfactants cause problem for making water
droplets within the oil phase. Finally, the increase in temperature to 90°C
showed that the oil recovery rate was reduced to about 42% in the homo­
geneous model and 51% in the heterogeneous model. The achievements of
this research lead to a better understanding of the effect of temperature
parameter on various mechanisms of increasing heavy oil recovery such as
reducing the IFT of oil/injectable solutions and producing W/O emulsion
during alkaline flooding under different wetting conditions. Studies show
that injecting alkaline by creating a W/O emulsion prolongs the break­
through time and changes the finger pattern created during water flooding
in a way that reduces the amount of oil bypassed, so that a significant
increase is observed in the oil recovery factor.

Introduction
The main purpose of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is to increase the production of oil from reservoirs
through improving the efficiency of injected fluid (Lyu et al. 2018). Alkaline flooding has been
considered as an enhanced oil recovery method. The cost-effectiveness of alkaline and its high
abundance compared to other chemicals have made alkaline flooding an efficient method among

CONTACT Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji moraveji@aut.ac.ir Department of Chemical Engineering Amirkabir University of
Technology, Tehran, Iran; Arezou Jafari ajafari@modares.ac.ir Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Department of Petroleum
Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
4854 E. DARASH ET AL.

chemical flooding methods (Du et al. 2012; Elyaderani and Jafari 2019). In addition, alkaline flooding
is suitable for the reservoirs containing high viscosity crude oil, because they contain high organic acid
(Speight 2019). In contrast, a stable emulsion mechanism that is supposed to help increase oil recovery
requires special surface installations that dramatically increase the cost of operation and project capital
(Mahdavi and Zebarjad 2018). Also, the use of alkaline solutions at high concentrations is limited,
because the environment with very high alkalinity can lead to the formation of precipitates that can
block the pores’ throats and in turn reduce the productivity index (Krumrine, Mayer, and Brock 1985).
In this method, alkaline reacts with the acidic components in the oil to produce the in-situ active
substance (Mohsenatabar Firozjaii, Derakhshan, and Shadizadeh 2018). When the water and oil
phases come in contact with each other, the alkaline in the water phase and the organic acids in the
oil phase move to the interface, reacting with each other to produce surfactants (Figure 1) (Samanta,
Ojha, and Mandal 2011). In other words, in situ anionic surfactant produced, helps to reduce the IFT.
The reaction of alkaline and acids in petroleum has been shown in Equation (1): In this reaction, HA
represents petroleum acid and A- represents an anionic surfactant (Sheng 2015).

HAO þ NaOH $ NaA þ H2 O (1)

Considering the research conducted on the effect of alkaline flooding on macroscopic displace­
ments of fluid flow on pore scales, so far, only one study has been conducted on the effect of
temperature on oil recovery in heavy-oil alkaline flooding and a lot of subjects in this area are
ambiguous. Despite extensive studies on alkaline flooding of conventional oil reservoirs, research on
the flooding of heavy oil reservoirs is limited due to the unfavorable mobility ratio between the water
and oil phases. The factors affecting the flooding performance of alkaline include temperature,
wettability, and permeability of the glass network. Therefore, the distribution of alkaline solution at
the pore scale during alkaline flooding in the micromodel and the mechanisms by which the alkaline
solution moves the oil phase under the influence of parameters such as temperature, permeability, and
wettability have not been fully understood. Therefore, in this study, first the effect of temperature on
heavy oil recovery during alkaline flooding in homogeneous micromodel (in order to minimize the

Figure 1. Schematic of the alkaline/petroleum acid interaction (DeZabala et al. 1982).

 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4855

Figure 2. Flow diagram of experimental steps.

presence of dead-end pores) and then in heterogeneous micromodel (with the aim of the effect of
permeability on flooding process) in both oil-wet and water-wet states has been examined. Also, for
better analysis of the results of phase behavior of alkaline solutions, interfacial tension of oil/injected
fluids and viscosity of alkalines were measured at different temperatures. In the following, first the
materials and equipment used have been described and then the laboratory activities including
preparation of solutions, phase behavior test of alkaline, determination of viscosity of injected fluids
and measurement of interfacial tension are expressed, and finally flooding tests in both homogeneous
and heterogeneous have been presented. The experimental steps are shown in the flow diagram
(Figure 2).

Materials and procedures

Experimental materials
In all experiments, oil sample with a density of 0.9 g/cm3 and viscosity of 151 cp prepared from one of
the southwestern fields of Iran was used. Also, the acid number value of the oil sample is 0.8 mg KOH/
g of sample. In addition, NaOH and Na2CO3 (purity 99%, Merc) were used as alkaline. It should be
noted that distilled water and toluene (purity of 99.9%, Merc) was used to wash the micromodels,
hydrofluoric acid (purity of 99.99%, Merc) to deepen the micromodels, and a 2% solution of
trichloromethyl silane (TCMS; purity >99%) and 98% of toluene, NaOH, and methanol were used
to make the micromodels oil-wet. Also, acetone (purity >99.5%) and hydrochloric acid were used to
make the micromodels water-wet.

Experimental methods
Preparing solutions
Since the principal purpose of this work, is to evaluation the effect of temperature on alkaline flooding
in different porous media and considering that by changing the concentration of alkaline solution, the
effect of temperature as the main parameter on alkaline flooding cannot be investigated, a moderate
concentration (0.5 wt%) was chosen for the concentration of alkaline solution in all experiments.

Phase behavior test

Shang showed that by reducing the oil to water volume ratio, the stability of the emulsion is weakened
(Shang et al. 2019). For this reason, in order to investigate the phase behavior and determine the type
of emulsion, the solution and the oil were poured into the test pipe at equal proportions and kept for
4856 E. DARASH ET AL.

30 min at 50°C, and it was gently shaken about 100 times. Then, the type of emulsion formed by the
micrographic images was determined. Finally, ImageJ software has been used to check the size of the
droplets.

Viscosity measurement
The viscosity values of crude oil sample and aqueous solutions were measured using Brookfield
viscometer at the temperatures of 25, 50, 75 and 90°C.

IFT measurement
The IFT values of crude oil sample and aqueous solutions were measured at 25, 50, 75 and 90°C using
the Lauda TE3 tensometer and using the pendant drop method. The schematic of the IFT measure­
ment device has been shown in Figure 3.
In this method, the droplet is hung from a very small hole. Based on interfacial and intermolecular
forces, the drop tends to take a spherical shape to minimize the contact surface with the second phase.
The surface tension can be calculated by measuring the different dimensions of this hanging drop in
the presence of the second phase.

Micromodel flooding
The micromodel system, which includes a New Era injection pump, a light source, a vacuum pump,
a Nikon D5300 camera, a computer, and a Dino-lite microscope, has been used for floodings
(Figure 4). In this study, two homogeneous (Figure 4a) and heterogeneous (Figure 4b) glass micro­
models have been used, in which the study of pore-scale displacement mechanisms is visually provided
and are also economical (Bou-Mikael 2012). CorelDraw software was used to design the micromodels
to engrave the designs on the glass. The designed heterogeneous micromodel has three areas of high,
intermediate, and low permeability.
Prior to each experiment, the micromodels were washed using toluene and distilled water
and discharged by a vacuum pump. Then, the methods described in the references were used
to make the micro-models water-wet and oil-wet (Meybodi, Kharrat, and Araghi 2011, 2011):
Next, the models were saturated with oil, and then the process of flooding began at the rate of
1 μl/min. During each experiment, images were taken every 5 min using the camera and the
final oil recovery was calculated using Photoshop software. Finally, by examining the micro­
scopic images, any changes in the scale of the pores were examined. It should be noted that
an oven has been used to adjust the temperature of the micromodel at the desired tempera­
ture. The micromodels were also placed horizontally during the experiments to minimize the
effect of gravity. The properties of the micromodels as well as the values for the permeability
of the micromodels have been given in Table 1. The absolute permeability values of the

Figure 3. The IFT setup used in this study.

 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4857

Figure 4. Schematic diagram of the micromodel setup.

Table 1. Pattern specifications.

Pattern A B

Length (mm) 100 80

Width(mm) 50 80

Depth(µm) 166 166

Porosity (%) 62.44 55.16

Pore diameter
(mm) 1.32 High K Middle K Low K
- 1.32 0.47
Throat diameter 0.19 - 0.19 0.07
(mm)
Permeability 8.8 12.2 8.8 0.9
(D)

micromodels were selected at three different flow rates according to Darcy's law, and the
pressure drop associated with each flow was recorded in the system after the flow stabilization
(Dullien 2012).

Results and discussion

Phase behavior
Figure 5 shows a micrograph of the distribution of emulsion droplets produced by NaOH in phase
behavior tests at different temperatures. It is observed that the water phase is transparent in the form
of scattered droplets, indicating that the emulsions are of the W/O type. The formation of W/O
emulsion in this system, due to the fact that the aqueous solution in which the alkaline substance is
dissolved has been without salt, can be due to the relatively high concentration of sodium hydroxide
and its high reactivity with oil as well as the low water-to-oil ratio of the system shown.
4858 E. DARASH ET AL.

Figure 5. Micrograph image of emulsions formed at different temperatures.

Arhuoma et al. (2009) showed that the viscosity of the W/O emulsion increased with increasing
number of droplets and their size. The increase in the quality of the water in oil emulsion is directly
related to the increase in the number and size of water droplets. Therefore, with increasing tempera­
ture up to 50°C, the quality of the emulsion increases and as a result, its effective viscosity increases.
However, according to Figure 5, at a temperature above 50°C, the size and number of droplets decrease
significantly, and the water droplets are going to disappear at 90°C. Therefore, an optimal value for
temperature can be defined that the number and size of droplets enhance up to that temperature.

Assessment of viscosity
The viscosity measurement of injection solutions and oil at different temperatures has been shown in
Table 2. As can be seen, as the temperature rises from 25 to 90°C, the viscosity values of NaOH
solutions, Na2CO3, and distilled water, as well as oil, decreases. According to a general rule (Eq.2), the
higher the viscosity of a fluid (here oil), in return for a certain increase in temperature, its viscosity will
decrease more significantly.
μ ¼ bexpðC=T Þ (2)
μ: Viscosity b, C: Coefficient T: Temperature

Assessment of interfacial tension

Four experiments were performed at temperatures of 25, 50, 75 and 90°C in order to evaluate the effect
of temperature on pH of alkaline solutions, IFT of crude oil sample and aqueous solutions, and the
results have been shown in Figures 6, 7 and 8. It is worthy to note that pH plays an important role in
the production of minimal interfacial tension, because non-ionized acids in acidic oils are associated
with interfacial tension, and their ionization is controlled by pH (Rudin and Wasan 1992). In other
words, a minimum pH is required to convert the acidic components of the oil into surfactants (Sheng
2015). As shown in Figure 6, sodium hydroxide has stronger alkaline strength than sodium carbonate
and has increased the pH of the medium and has lower interfacial tension. In other words, with
increasing temperature from 25 to 90°C, the pH of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate solutions
decreased from 12.9 to 11.2 at ambient temperature to 10.44 and 9.75 at 90°C, respectively. In fact, oil

Table 2. Viscosity of oil and injected fluids at different temperatures.

Viscosity(cp)
T (°C) Na2CO3 NaOH DW Oil
25 0.988 0.994 0.992 151.04
50 0.66 0.68 0.718 92.8
75 0.452 0.46 0.532 24.81
90 0.388 0.4 0.467 16.62
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4859

NaOH Na2CO3
13
12.5
12
11.5

pH
11
10.5
10
9.5
9
0 25 50 75 100
Temperature(°C)
Figure 6. pH reduction of alkaline solutions at different temperatures.

12
10
IFT(mN/m)

8
6
4
2
0
0 25 50 75 100
Temperature(°C)
Figure 7. IFT reduction of oil/water at different temperatures.

a b
Figure 8. Effect of temperature on reducing IFT of alkaline solutions a) NaOH b) Na2CO3.

with the sodium carbonate, because the pH of the solution is about 11.2, has not been able to produce
as much surfactant as the alkaline sodium hydroxide. As the pH of the sodium hydroxide solution is
12.9; it can be said that more in-situ surfactant has been produced. According to Figures 7 and 8, when
the temperature is in the range of ambient temperature, among the solutions of sodium hydroxide,
sodium carbonate, and water, the lowest IFT is related to sodium hydroxide, which is about 1mN/m.
This makes crude oil easily cut and broken subjected to the comprehensive forces when the oil/alkaline
system lowers the IFT to a very small extent by ionizing the organic acids in the oil and producing
in situ surfactants and the alkaline solution penetrates the crude oil, which increases the mobility of the
oil. As the temperature rises from 25 to 90°C, the IFT between water and oil decreases from 10.43 to
7.9mN/m (Figure 7).
In addition, according to Figure 8, as the temperature increases from 25 to 90°C, the time it takes to
reach the lowest IFT is reduced, indicating that low or medium temperatures are more effective in
4860 E. DARASH ET AL.

reducing IFT. When the temperature reaches 75 and 90°C, the IFT of sodium hydroxide solution
increases to 3.98 and 4.09mN/m, respectively, which means that the oil drop is not broken and the
alkaline solution loses its ability to penetrate the oil. IFT also shows a slight decrease in sodium
carbonate solution and decreases to 6.7mN/m at 90°C.
The results of values of crude oil sample and aqueous solutions show that temperature has
a positive and negative effect on reducing IFT. At low temperatures, the chemical reaction between
sodium hydroxide and oil acids is enhanced and benefits from reduced IFT. However, when the
temperature reaches more than 75°C, the sodium hydroxide instability increases with increasing
temperature and it leads to poor absorption of sodium hydroxide molecules and a decrease in the
amount of in-situ surfactant at the oil/alkaline interface. Therefore, oil/sodium hydroxide IFT
increases.

Microfluidics study in homogeneous porous medium

The ultimate oil recovery data have been shown in Figure 9. It is clear from the figure that for sodium
hydroxide and sodium carbonate with increasing temperature to a certain value (50°C), oil recovery
will first increase and then decrease significantly.
Comparing the flooding of the two alkalis of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, it can be
concluded that sodium carbonate has little ability to produce surfactants, so sodium hydroxide has
higher efficiency in increasing heavy oil recovery. In fact, sodium hydroxide in contact with oil produces
more surfactants and reduces surface tension more than distilled water and sodium carbonate at
ambient temperature. It also reduces the mobility of the aqueous phase by producing a W/O emulsion,
and as shown in Figure 9, the front of the injected fluid is more inclined to transverse diffusion, and the
sweep efficiency is higher than that of water and sodium carbonate. Examination of microscopic images
also shows that changing the wettability of the porous media from water-wet to oil-wet can lead to
increase the fluid pressure and the penetration of alkaline into the oil phase, which is itself a factor in
increasing the sweep efficiency of alkaline flooding. So, at the same weight percentage of sodium
hydroxide and sodium carbonate, due to its higher alkalinity, sodium hydroxide further increases the
pH of the environment and produces more surfactants and, compared to the water and sodium
carbonate flooding, oil recovery has increased further at ambient temperature. In fact, among the
proper conditions, including high pH, low acidity, and low alkaline concentration for better emulsion
production, sodium hydroxide generates more emulsion than sodium carbonate due to higher pH. As
the temperature increases to 50°C, the alkaline strength of the sodium hydroxide solution decreases and
the surface tension increases, however, the intensity of this increase is not significant compared to the
effective viscosity of the W/O emulsion produced at this temperature and the front of the injected fluid
also shows a greater tendency to transverse diffusion and enhances oil recovery relative to ambient
temperature for sodium carbonate and water flooding. Also, if the size of the emulsion droplets
corresponds to the size of the pores, Due to the high displacement efficiency of the emulsion, the oil
recovery factor increases. Compared with other methods of enhanced oil recovery Such as injection of
NPs, This method seems promising, as the accumulation of nanoparticles plugs pores and reduces oil
recovery (Dordzie and Dejam 2021; Olayiwola and Dejam 2019). With increasing temperature, up to 75
and 90°C, it is observed that the sweep efficiency is weak. It can be explained that the reaction rate
between the NaOH solutions and the crude oil increases at high temperatures. Also, the decrease in the
effect of surface tension (increase in IFT with increasing temperature) and weakness in uniform
enrichment of in situ surfactants, due to the instability of injectable solutions, causes these changes to
be undesirable for forming water droplets within the oil phase, which is the main mechanism of sodium
hydroxide flooding. Also, reduction performance Sodium carbonate solution by entrapment into oil
and entrainment of the oil by Sodium carbonate solution which lead to oil bypassing are two factors that
reduces the flooding efficiency of sodium carbonate at high temperatures. Another conclusion that can
be obtained from comparing the flooding of sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, and water is that in
the case of water and sodium carbonate injection, most of the remaining oil saturation is continuous.
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4861

Inability of Na2CO3 to produce emulsions

1 2

Reduction performance
Entrainment of the oil by Na2CO3
Na2CO3 by entrapment into oil
3 4
a

Better quality emulsions at low temperatures

1 2

3 Lack of formation emulsion at high temperatures 4

b

1 Region not swept by water flooding 2

3 4
c

Figure 9. Floodings into homogeneous water-wet medium a) Na2CO3 b) NaOH c) Water at temperatures of 1) 25°C 2) 50°C 3) 75°C 4)
90°C.
4862 E. DARASH ET AL.

Table 3. Capillary number calculations.

Capillary Number (NC= υμγ )

T(°C) NaOH Na2CO3 Water

6
25 1.93 � 10 2.58 � 10 7 1.9 � 10 7
7
50 4.34 � 10 1.8 � 10 7 1.5 � 10 7
7
75 2.31 � 10 1.25 � 10 7 1.21 � 10 7
7
90 1.95 � 10 1.16 � 10 7 1.18 � 10 7

This is due to the high surface tension of the injected fluids/oil and thus the high capillary forces. In this
case, the remaining oil saturation will be in the form of interconnected masses of oil. In fact, the number
of capillaries, which represents the ratio of viscous forces to capillaries, should be multiplied. In the case
of sodium hydroxide flooding, a slight two-phase surface tension can reduce capillary forces and
consequently oil production. As a result, the capillary number increases and trapped oil is produced.
According to Table 3, the highest capillary value is related to sodium hydroxide solution. This causes the
solution to extract more oil than the other injected fluids during flooding at ambient temperature,
resulting in lower residual oil saturation. Also, according to the results of viscosity (Table 2) and surface
tension, it is observed that the changes in surface tension are greater than the changes in viscosity.
Therefore, capillary force is a more effective factor in oil displacement compared to viscosity force and
has a greater impact on oil efficiency. It should be noted that with increasing temperature to 75 and
90°C, the surface tension of sodium hydroxide/oil increases, which consequently reduces the capillary
number. Data on the capillary number of injected fluids at different temperatures have been given in
Table 3.
In Figures 9 (A1 and B1), which are related to the flooding of sodium carbonate and sodium
hydroxide at ambient temperature, respectively, ultimate oil recoveries sequently were achieved about
42 and 46%. As observed in Figure 9a,b, the efficiency of the oil recovery first improves with increasing
temperature to 50°C and then decreases. For sodium hydroxide, an increase of more than 23% was
observed relative to the ambient temperature and for Sodium carbonate, an increase of 9% was
observed relative to the ambient temperature. As the temperature rises to 75 and 90°C, the alkaline
flooding performance decreases, and as the temperature rises, the oil recovery rate decreases. During
water flooding at ambient temperature, the water passes into a direction with the least capillary
pressure and reaches the production well in the fastest way. Hence, many pores are not affected by
water and much of the oil remains in the reservoir after flooding. In Figure 9c1, which presents water
flooding at 25°C, the oil is slightly displaced by the injected water, resulting in an efficiency of about
29%. However, in Figure 9c2, due to the increase in micromodel temperature (50°C), decrease in oil
viscosity and IFT between water and oil, it is observed that more oil has been produced and oil
recovery factor increases from 29 to 34.5% and produces about 5% more oil. As shown in Figures 9c3
and 9c4, this process of improving sweep efficiency is also observed at 75 and 90. ℃. As the
temperature of the micromodel rises to 90°C, oil recovery increases to 59.3%, an increase of more
than 30% over the ambient temperature. Finally, the results of ultimate oil recovery in Figure 10 show
that water flooding shows better performance at 90°C than alkaline floodings. It can be concluded that
during alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide at ambient temperature, it is observed that the quality of
water emulsion in oil is better in terms of both the number of drops and their larger size than sodium
carbonate. But at high temperatures, because the water emulsion in the oil cannot be easily formed,
and the fluid tends to move from the center of the pores, it can be seen that in these temperatures the
oil recovery has decreased significantly.

Microfluidics study in heterogeneous porous medium

With the onset of the alkaline flooding process of NaOH and Na2CO3 at ambient temperature, the
tendency of the flow front to penetrate and react with acidic oil has increased and the phenomenon of
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4863

NaOH Na2CO3 WF
80
69.7

59.3

Oil Recovery (%)

53.4
60 51.4 51.8
46.5 48.7
42.4 42.7
40 34.5 34.3
29.2

20

0
25 50 75 90
Temperature(°C)

Figure 10. Influence of the temperature on water/alkaline flooding in homogeneous micromodel in water-wet state.

fingering has decreased in the low-permeability region and more transverse diffusion has occurred in
the high-permeability region. In fact, we observe this condition due to the increase in the effective
viscosity of the emulsion formed and the further reduction of the IFT of alkalis, which is due to the
reaction of alkalis with organic acids in crude oil (Figure 11a,b). Both the viscosity of the oil and the
rate of reaction between the crude oil sample and aqueous solutions change with temperature. It can
be concluded that the oil recovery performance for the two alkaline samples is similar with tempera­
ture changes. However, at the temperature of 50°C, according to the micrograph images, the quality of
the emulsion formed by sodium hydroxide is much better than the ambient temperature, both in

Capillary effect: Due to the capillary forces, flow could not enter many pores throats

Extended distribution of NaOH in 3 zone

Piston-like displacement of oil

Figure 11. Floodings into heterogeneous water-wet medium; a) Na2CO3 b) NaOH c) Water at temperatures of 1) 25°C 2) 50°C 3)
75°C 4) 90°C.
4864 E. DARASH ET AL.

terms of the number of droplets and their size. This increases the viscosity of the W/O emulsion, and
the injected fluid front shows a greater tendency to transverse diffusion, which increases oil recovery
compared to sodium carbonate and water flooding. Compared to other enhanced oil recovery
methods, such as polymer flooding (Liu et al. 2017; Wang et al. 2003), gel blocking (Zhang and Bai
2011) and injection of NPs (Olayiwola and Dejam 2020), sodium hydroxide flooding can provide
promising results. Because emulsion blocking of the formation is not necessarily a permanent blocking
method, which can be removed by de-emulsification, so it applies less damage to the formation.
The alkaline flooding efficiency decreased with increasing temperature up to 75 and 90°C due to the
weakness in the uniform production of in situ surfactants, and it was observed that the oil recovery
rate decreases. With the onset of the process of water flooding in the heterogeneous micromodel, water
easily breaks through the production port after passing through high permeability region in the porous
medium in the form of a finger pattern. When distilled water enters the micromodel, due to the large
distance between the grains, the capillary force is reduced in the area with higher permeability and the
fluid continues to move in the direction of less energy loss and less obstruction. Eventually, moving in
a low-permeability environment increases the velocity of the fluid due to the reduction in the diameter
of the pores and overcomes the capillary force in this part. This is due to the tendency of the fluid to
move in pores with lower capillary force, followed by the formation of a finger phenomenon in this
medium (Figure 11c1). Water flood performance improved with increasing temperature to 75 and
90°C, and it was observed that the oil recovery rate increases with increasing temperature, and the
injected water displaces the oil in a piston-like state. Observations show that the efficiency of the water
flooding process is a strong function of the viscosity ratio of oil to water. In other words, the oil
recovery rate at high temperatures is inversely related to the viscosity of the oil, so that decreasing the
viscosity of oil at 75 and 90°C increases oil recovery compared to alkaline flooding. According to the
microscopic images of sodium hydroxide flooding at ambient temperature, it can be observed that
after alkaline flooding, there is an oil film between the injected fluid and the surface of the pores and
this shows that during the flooding, complete wettability change has occurred in many areas, and
almost all the walls of the pores have become oil-wet. Sodium carbonate flooding, on the other hand,
causes only a slight change in wettability in some areas of the glass network (Figures 12a,b). It should
be noted that due to the inability of sodium carbonate to form W/O emulsion, microscopic examina­
tion of the formed emulsions was performed during sodium hydroxide flooding. The residual oil is
trapped in the throats after the water flooding in the form of oil droplets due to the greater capillary
force in these areas, between the grains and in the form that remains on the walls of the pores
(Figure 12c). In strongly water-wet medium, water replaces oil with a spontaneously imbibition
mechanism and expels it from the pores. This mechanism leads to relatively higher microscopic
displacement efficiency compared to the oil-wet medium (Mehranfar and Ghazanfari 2014). Since in
the water-wet glass network, advanced imbibition makes it easier for liquids to enter the throat of the
pores. Finally, the microscopic results of floodings show that the difference in the permeability of the
pores makes the fluid effective, depending on which path is chosen with less capillary force or the
predominant pressure gradient.
Microscopic examinations in Figure 13a-d show that as the temperature increases from 25°C to
50°C, the W/O emulsion increases in both number and size of droplets. With more increasing the
temperature, the emulsion decreases, so no emulsion was observed at 90°C. An in situ anionic
surfactant produced during the reaction of alkaline and natural organic acids in oil is adsorbed on
the quartz substrate through hydrogen or electrostatic bond interactions between the hydrophilic
surfactant head and the quartz substrate. Wettability changes when anionic surfactants are
adsorbed on the substrate. When the wettability of the pores wall changes from water-wet to oil-
wet, the film of water constantly disappears and the water channel between the walls of the pores
and the oil phase will be blocked. This could lead to increased fluid pressure and alkali penetration
into the oil phase, which could improve the alkaline flood sweep efficiency. However, oil viscosity
decreases at high temperatures, and as a result, with increasing temperature, a favorable mobility
ratio between alkaline solution and oil may appear, and the sweep efficiency at high temperatures
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4865

High K Middle K Low K

Wettability alteration to partially oil-wet under the effect of Na2CO3

a

Wettability alteration to oil-wet under the effect of NaOH

b

Water could not sweep oil completely Trapped oil

c
Figure 12. a, b) Wettability alteration in Na2CO3 and NaOH floodings c) oil trapped in water flooding.

remains weak. It can be explained that the reaction between crude oil sample and alkaline
solutions may be accelerated at higher temperatures. Reducing the effect of interfacial tension
and weakening the uniform enrichment of in-situ surfactants makes these changes undesirable for
water droplets to form within the oil phase, which is the main mechanism for alkaline flooding for
crude oil. Also, because the fluid motion is in the center of the pores and in fingering form, it is
also observed that the pH decreases with increasing temperature and the alkaline properties of the
alkaline solution are reduced and interfacial tension is increased, which reduces oil recovery. By
comparing alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, it can be concluded that
sodium hydroxide alkaline has a higher ability to increase the oil recovery. Thus, at the same
weight percentage of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide has increased
the pH of the medium and produced more surfactant due to its higher alkalinity, and the heavy oil
recovery has increased more than sodium carbonate. According to Figure 14, which shows the
ultimate oil recovery during various floodings, oil recovery during the alkaline flooding of sodium
hydroxide and sodium carbonate at ambient temperature was more than 46 and 41%, respectively,
which has shown an increase of more than 13 and 8% compared to water flooding. As the
temperature increased to 50°C during the alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide, 17% increase
and also by more than 16% increase were observed for sodium carbonate compared to ambient
temperature. However, with increasing the temperature to 90°C, the performance of both alkalis is
reduced and oil recovery during water flooding is better. Observation of this type of trend in oil
recovery rate with increasing temperature in alkaline flooding in sandstone was also observed in
the research of Ge et al. (2012). However, in this study, an appropriate understanding of the
emulsion behavior at high temperatures is not achieved due to the lack of study of the pore-scale
displacement mechanisms by microscopic images. The results show that with increasing
4866 E. DARASH ET AL.

High K Middle K Low K

W/O emulsions

Numerous Water in Oil emulsion

Water in Oil emulsion strings droplets
b

Bypassed thick layer of oil by NaOH Unswept oil after flooding

Emulsified small trapped oil droplets Thick layer residual oil on the wall
d

Figure 13. Emulsions formed by sodium hydroxide in heterogeneous water-wet porous medium at temperatures a) 25°C b) 50°C c)
75°C d) 90°C.

NaOH Na2CO3 WF
80 75.6
66.9
64
58.7
Oil Recovery (%)

58.2
60 55
51.4
46.6 45.7 44.5
41.7
40 33

20

0
25 50 75 90
Temperature(°C)

Figure 14. Influence of the temperature on water/alkaline flooding in heterogeneous micromodel in water-wet state.

temperature and decreasing surface tension and oil viscosity, the recovery rate increased and more
than 75% recovery was observed during water flooding for 90°C.
The microscopic and microscopic examination of alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide was
performed in two homogeneous and heterogeneous models at 50°C in oil-wet state to evaluate the
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4867

effect of wettability on the oil recovery rate at the temperature at which maximum oil recovery
occurred in the water-wet state. As shown in Figure 15 associated with macroscopic and microscopic
images, the final recovery of oil at this temperature is less than when flooding occurs in water-wet
mode. This is due to the ability of sodium hydroxide to change the wettability to the oil-wet state
(described earlier) and to create a wider oil layer on the pores of the pores, as well as very low mobility
of W/O emulsions, which may significantly reduce displacement efficiency of the alkaline solution and
its ability to move the remaining oil relative to the water-wet state. This result was also observed in
previous studies (Dong, Liu, and Li 2012). Finally, the oil recovery factor in this case was 50% for the
homogeneous model and 33% for the heterogeneous porous medium. Examination of the microscopic
images revealed that the formed emulsions were not observed in the model output, because they are
trapped in an oil-wet glass network and form part of the oil saturation remaining in the pattern. Also,
during flooding, complete wettability change occurs in many areas, and almost the entire wall of the oil
pores becomes oil-wet. This makes the oil layer created in the pores wider and reduces oil recovery in
oil-wet state at 50°C compared to water-wet state.

Scale up the results

It seems that the effect of temperatures above 90°C and water salinity on the stability of injectable
solutions should be investigated on a laboratory scale. Studies on the use of nanoparticles that can help
stabilize emulsions formed at high temperatures are essential. Also, the effect of changing parameters
such as concentration, flow rate, and flow duration should be examined in order to conclude the
recoverable oil rate. It seems that core flood tests can bring the results closer to reality. Numerical
methods such as COMSOL Multiphysics and reservoir simulators such as UTCHEM can also help
researchers to learn more about this process.

Summary and conclusions

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of temperatures above ambient temperature
on alkaline flooding performance, viscosity and surface tension of injected fluids, and phase behavior
of alkaline solutions on oil recovery. The morphological effect of pores and heterogeneity in layered
reservoirs was also investigated. The results showed that:

● Alkaline flooding of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate at different temperatures showed
that relatively low temperatures are beneficial for alkaline flooding. When the temperature rises
to a certain value, the displacement efficiency decreases significantly.
● During NaOH flooding, the recovery rate increases from about 46% at ambient temperature to
69.7% at 50°C in the homogeneous model and from about 46% at ambient temperature to 64% at

Isolated
NaOH
solution

Residual oil
on pore wall

a b

Figure 15. Sodium hydroxide flooding in oil-wet state in A) heterogeneous B) homogeneous models at the temperature of 50°C.
4868 E. DARASH ET AL.

50°C in the heterogeneous model in water-wet state. While at higher temperatures (90°C), water
flooding has a better oil recovery than alkaline flooding.
● Changing the wettability to oil-wet condition, increasing interfacial tension, reducing alkalinity,
and producing less emulsion with increasing temperature reduced the ultimate oil recovery
during flooding of sodium hydroxide at high temperatures.
● Microscopic examinations at high temperatures at the pore scale showed that the emulsions are
subjected to a temperature gradient during the time interval between production and displace­
ment in the reservoir, which makes it impossible to produce emulsion under reservoir
conditions.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID
Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4891-340X
Arezou Jafari http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3850-3327

References
Arhuoma, M., M. Dong, D. Yang, and R. Idem. 2009. Determination of water-in-oil emulsion viscosity in porous media.
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 48 (15):7092–102. doi:10.1021/ie801818n.
Bou-Mikael, S. A. 2012. Design and optimization of 2.5 dimension porous media micromodel for nanosensor flow
experiments.
DeZabala, E., J. Vislocky, E. Rubin, and C. Radke. 1982. A chemical theory for linear alkaline flooding. Society of
Petroleum Engineers Journal 22 (02):245–58. doi:10.2118/8997-PA.
Dong, M., Q. Liu, and A. Li. 2012. Displacement mechanisms of enhanced heavy oil recovery by alkaline flooding in a
micromodel. Particuology 10 (3):298–305. doi:10.1016/j.partic.2011.09.008.
Dordzie, G., and M. Dejam. 2021. Enhanced oil recovery from fractured carbonate reservoirs using nanoparticles with
low salinity water and surfactant: A review on experimental and simulation studies. Advances in Colloid and Interface
Science 293:102449. doi:10.1016/j.cis.2021.102449.
Dullien, F. A. 2012. Porous media: Fluid transport and pore structure. 2nd. ed. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Academic
press.
Du, Y., G. Zhang, J. Ge, G. Li, and A. Feng. 2013. Influence of oil viscosity on alkaline flooding for enhanced heavy oil
recovery. Journal of Chemistry 2013:1–8. doi:10.1155/2013/938237.
Elyaderani, S. M. G., and A. Jafari. 2019. Microfluidics experimental study in porous media applied for nanosilica/
alkaline flooding. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 173:1289–303. doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2018.08.039.
Ge, J., A. Feng, G. Zhang, P. Jiang, H. Pei, R. Li, and X. Fu. 2012. Study of the factors influencing alkaline flooding in
heavy-oil reservoirs. Energy & Fuels 26 (5):2875–82. doi:10.1021/ef3000906.
Krumrine, P., E. Mayer, and G. Brock. 1985. Scale formation during alkaline flooding. Journal of Petroleum Technology
37 (08):1466–74. doi:10.2118/12671-PA.
Liu, Z., Y. Li, J. Lv, B. Li, and Y. Chen. 2017. Optimization of polymer flooding design in conglomerate reservoirs.
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 152:267–74. doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2017.03.010.
Lyu, Y., C. Gu, X. Fan, J. Tao, X. Yao, C. Dai, and G. Zhao. 2018. Interfacial rheology of a novel dispersed particle gel soft
heterogeneous combination flooding system at the oil-water interface. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and
Engineering Aspects 559:23–34. doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2018.09.024.
Mahdavi, E., and F. Zebarjad. 2018. Screening criteria of enhanced oil recovery methods fundamentals of enhanced oil and
gas recovery from conventional and unconventional reservoirs. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Mehranfar, A., and M. H. Ghazanfari. 2014. Investigation of the microscopic displacement mechanisms and macro­
scopic behavior of alkaline flooding at different wettability conditions in shaly glass micromodels. Journal of
Petroleum Science and Engineering 122:595–615. doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2014.08.027.
Meybodi, H. E., R. Kharrat, and M. N. Araghi. 2011. Experimental studying of pore morphology and wettability effects
on microscopic and macroscopic displacement efficiency of polymer flooding. Journal of Petroleum Science and
Engineering 78 (2):347–63. doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2011.07.004.
Meybodi, H. E., R. Kharrat, and X. Wang. 2011. Study of microscopic and macroscopic displacement behaviors of
polymer solution in water-wet and oil-wet media. Transport in Porous Media 89 (1):97–120.
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 4869

Mohsenatabar Firozjaii, A., A. Derakhshan, and S. R. Shadizadeh. 2018. An investigation into surfactant flooding and
alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding for enhancing oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs: Experimental study and
simulation. Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects 40 (24):2974–85. doi:10.1080/
15567036.2018.1514439.
Olayiwola, S. O., and M. Dejam. 2019. A comprehensive review on interaction of nanoparticles with low salinity water
and surfactant for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Fuel 241:1045–57. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.
2018.12.122.
Olayiwola, S. O., and M. Dejam. 2020. “Synergistic interaction of nanoparticles with low salinity water and surfactant
during alternating injection into sandstone reservoirs to improve oil recovery and reduce formation damage. Journal
of Molecular Liquids 317:114228. doi:10.1016/j.molliq.2020.114228.
Rudin, J., and D. T. Wasan. 1992. Mechanisms for lowering of interfacial tension in alkali/acidic oil systems 1.
Experimental studies. Colloids and Surfaces 68 (1–2):67–79. doi:10.1016/0166-6622(92)80148-U.
Samanta, A., K. Ojha, and A. Mandal. 2011. Interactions between acidic crude oil and alkali and their effects on enhanced
oil recovery. Energy & Fuels 25 (4):1642–49. doi:10.1021/ef101729f.
Shang, X., Y. Bai, J. Sun, and C. Dong. 2019. Performance and displacement mechanism of a surfactant/compound
alkaline flooding system for enhanced oil recovery. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
580:123679. doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2019.123679.
Sheng, J. J. 2015. Investigation of alkaline–crude oil reaction. Petroleum 1 (1):31–39. doi:10.1016/j.petlm.2015.04.004.
Speight, J. G. 2019. Heavy oil recovery and upgrading, 559–614. Gulf Professional Publishing .
Wang, D., L. Zhao, J. Cheng, and J. Wu 2003. Actual field data show that production costs of polymer flooding can be
lower than water flooding. SPE International Improved Oil Recovery Conference in Asia Pacific, OnePetro.
Zhang, H., and B. Bai. 2011. Preformed-particle-gel transport through open fractures and its effect on water flow. SPE
Journal 16 (02):388–400. doi:10.2118/129908-PA.