TY - JOUR
T1 - Low-energy emulsification of oil-in-water emulsions with self-regulating mobility via a nanoparticle surfactant
AU - Liu, Rui
AU - Pu, Wanfen
AU - Lu, Yuanyuan
AU - Lian, Kunlin
AU - Sun, Lin
AU - Du, Daijun
AU - Song, Yuyang
AU - Sheng, James J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51904255, U19B2010, and 51904256), Basic Applied Research Program of Sichuan Province (No. 2020YJ0167) for financial supports of this work. The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society
PY - 2020/10/14
Y1 - 2020/10/14
N2 - Oil-field chemists and engineers have searched a method for intelligent flooding of chemical-intervention-based processes with self-regulating mobility in subterranean areas for decades. By designing hydrophilic nanoparticles (amine-terminated nanosilica particles (ATNPs)) and nonionic surfactant laurel monoanolamide (LEMA) molecules with complementary hydrogen bonding functionalities that bind one another at the oil-water interface, we developed a route to in situ oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions without a phase inversion point. Apparent viscosities of the O/W emulsions demonstrated a negative relationship to oil saturation and a positive relationship to water saturation over a broad range of water saturations from 30 to 78%. These emulsions are produced by low-energy emulsification, simply accomplished by mild shaking for tens of seconds. The total concentration of the nanoparticle surfactant is 7000 mg/L, much lower than reported in the previous literature. We show that a local turbulent eddy of the immiscible fluids provides sufficient energy and time for the nanoparticle surfactant to create O/W emulsions since their morphology, droplet size distribution, rheology, and stability are similar to those produced by high-energy emulsification using a high-shear rotor stator mixer. Emulsification kinetics and physical model tests demonstrate the synergistic effect of ATNPs and LEMA on arresting Ostwald ripening, increasing capillary numbers, and self-controlling the displacement frontier of these emulsions. This system produced a high oil recovery efficiency of a three-layer heterogeneous square core with an incremental oil recovery factor of 33.7% original oil in place (OOIP) and an ultimate recovery factor of 72.1% OOIP when the water cut of the earlier water flooding exceeds 98%. This work paves a pathway to the production of smart in situ O/W emulsions using nanoparticle surfactants for industrial oil recovery applications.
AB - Oil-field chemists and engineers have searched a method for intelligent flooding of chemical-intervention-based processes with self-regulating mobility in subterranean areas for decades. By designing hydrophilic nanoparticles (amine-terminated nanosilica particles (ATNPs)) and nonionic surfactant laurel monoanolamide (LEMA) molecules with complementary hydrogen bonding functionalities that bind one another at the oil-water interface, we developed a route to in situ oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions without a phase inversion point. Apparent viscosities of the O/W emulsions demonstrated a negative relationship to oil saturation and a positive relationship to water saturation over a broad range of water saturations from 30 to 78%. These emulsions are produced by low-energy emulsification, simply accomplished by mild shaking for tens of seconds. The total concentration of the nanoparticle surfactant is 7000 mg/L, much lower than reported in the previous literature. We show that a local turbulent eddy of the immiscible fluids provides sufficient energy and time for the nanoparticle surfactant to create O/W emulsions since their morphology, droplet size distribution, rheology, and stability are similar to those produced by high-energy emulsification using a high-shear rotor stator mixer. Emulsification kinetics and physical model tests demonstrate the synergistic effect of ATNPs and LEMA on arresting Ostwald ripening, increasing capillary numbers, and self-controlling the displacement frontier of these emulsions. This system produced a high oil recovery efficiency of a three-layer heterogeneous square core with an incremental oil recovery factor of 33.7% original oil in place (OOIP) and an ultimate recovery factor of 72.1% OOIP when the water cut of the earlier water flooding exceeds 98%. This work paves a pathway to the production of smart in situ O/W emulsions using nanoparticle surfactants for industrial oil recovery applications.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096206707&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c03153
DO - 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c03153
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096206707
VL - 59
SP - 18396
EP - 18411
JO - Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
JF - Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
SN - 0888-5885
IS - 41
ER -