Reducing anionic surfactant adsorption using polyacrylate as sacrificial agent investigated by QCM-D

Zilong Liu; Pegah Hedayati; Murali K Ghatkesar; Weichao Sun; Hayati Onay; Dirk Groenendijk; Johannes van Wunnik; Ernst J R Sudhölter

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.11.090

Reducing anionic surfactant adsorption using polyacrylate as sacrificial agent investigated by QCM-D

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Mar:585:1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.11.090. Epub 2020 Nov 26.

Authors

Zilong Liu¹, Pegah Hedayati², Murali K Ghatkesar³, Weichao Sun⁴, Hayati Onay², Dirk Groenendijk⁵, Johannes van Wunnik⁵, Ernst J R Sudhölter⁶

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Optical Detection Technology for Oil and Gas, College of Science, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing 102249, China; Organic Materials & Interfaces, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, the Netherlands. Electronic address: zlliu89@gmail.com.
² Organic Materials & Interfaces, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, the Netherlands.
³ Micro and Nano Engineering Group, Faculty of Mechanical Maritime and Materials (3mE) Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, the Netherlands.
⁴ Nano-Science Center, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁵ Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Shell Technology Centre Amsterdam (STCA), Grasweg 31, 1031 HW Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶ Organic Materials & Interfaces, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, the Netherlands. Electronic address: E.J.R.Sudholter@tudelft.nl.

PMID: 33279691
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.11.090

Abstract

Surfactant losses by adsorption to rock surfaces make surfactant-based enhanced oil recovery economically less feasible. We investigated polyacrylate (PA) as a sacrificial agent in the reduction of anionic surfactant adsorption with focus on calcite surfaces by using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. It was found that the adsorption of the anionic surfactant alcohol alkoxy sulfate (AAS) followed a Langmuir adsorption isotherm, and the adsorbed amount reached saturation above its critical micellar concentration. Adsorption of PA was a much slower process compared to AAS adsorption. Increasing the calcium ion concentration also increased the amount of AAS adsorbed as well as the mass increase rate of PA adsorption. Experimental results combined with density functional theory calculations indicated that calcium cation bridging was important for anionic surfactant AAS and PA adsorption to calcite surfaces. To effectively reduce the amount of surfactant adsorption, it was needed to preflush with PA, rather than by a simultaneous injection. Preflushing with 30 ppm of PA gave a reduction of AAS adsorption of 30% under high salinity (HS, 31,800 ppm) conditions, compared to 8% reduction under low salinity (LS, 3180 ppm) conditions. In the absence of PA, the amount of adsorbed AAS was reduced by already 50% upon changing from HS to LS conditions. Lower calcium ion concentrations, as under LS conditions, contributed to this observation. On different mineral surfaces, PA reduced the AAS adsorption in the order of alumina > calcite > silica. These results offer important insights into mitigating surfactant adsorption using PA polyelectrolyte as sacrificial agent and contribute to improved flooding strategies with reduced surfactant loss.

Keywords: Divalent cation; Enhanced oil recovery; Polyelectrolyte; QCM-D; Surfactant flooding.