SPE-193485-MS

Nano Augumented Biosurfactant Formulation for Oil Recovery in Medium

Oil Reservoirs

Ojo Temiouwa, Olabode Oluwaanmi, Seteyeobot Ifeanyi, and Oguntade Tomiwa, Department of Petroleum
Engineering, Covenant University, Canaan Land

Copyright 2018, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition held in Lagos, Nigeria, 6–8 August 2018.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
Production from most oil field using waterflooding has proven not to produce residual oil due to numerous
factors. Several recovery mechanisms have been applied which to an extent has its own influence both on
the environment, percentage recovery and also the cost of purchase.
In this blending process the bio-surfactant derived from jatropha oil at different concentrations were
augmented with nanoparticles for core flooding experiment. A blend of Bio-surfactant and nanoparticles
(B-NPs) is a dual purpose recovery mechanism which alters surface wettability, improves fluid mobility,
solubility improvement and stabilizes the foam and emulsions formed. At the surface of the nanoparticle, a
single layer is formed by the bio-surfactant which is an electrostatic based interaction given rise to particles
that are oil loving. Encouraged greatly by electrostatic interactions, the surfactant will then become a
monolayer on the nanoparticle surface, resulting in more hydrophobic particles. The impact of the various
particle sizes will be considered to analyze to stability of each BNPs concentration for residual oil recovery.
During the laboratory core flooding experiment on Berea cores, the results shows that the nanoparticle-
stabilized emulsions increased the oil recovery rate by 8% after water flooding and reduction in the
interfacial tension was at the minimum approximately 25 to 1 mN/m.

Introduction
As most oil reservoirs in the world approach or almost moving towards declining production rate,
abandonment of such wells may be the end result which crucially needs attention in order to postpone the
abandonment by recovering additional oil economically.
Mobilization of oil operations include three major stages: Primary stage which uses natural reservoir
mechanism for oil mobilization also, secondary stage with the use of water flooding and injection of gas
and finally the application of gases that are miscible, chemicals and thermal energy for fluid displacement.
Several recovery mechanisms were employed world wide ranging from surfactant flooding to
nanotechnology etc. Implementation of Nanoparticles proved to be useful to upstream processes
by emergent improved resources, and also in remediation of asphaltene/ scale/paraffin dispersions
nanoparticles has proven to be effective.
2 SPE-193485-MS

Another latest utilization of nanotechnology in the oil and gas industry is the making of a few sorts of
savvy liquids. These new nanoformulas incorporate surfactants and polymers, colloidal scattering gels and
so on utilized as a part of boring, upgraded oil recuperation and so on
The immiscible attributes of oil and water empowers a high interfacial pressure (IFT) between them. The
option of silica hydrophilic nanoparticles to this kind of framework has been explored to bring down the
IFT and potentially prepare extra oil from the supply. The nanoparticles will gather each other at the oil /
brackish water limit, bringing down the contact between the two stages. The layer of particles creates a
lower IFT between the stages, incredibly like the exercises of surfactants.

Surfactant and nanoparticle blends

Mix of surfactant and nanoparticles has been contemplated amid oil recuperation forms and a lot of caught
oil was pressed out of the supply.
Be that as it may, despite the huge overviews examining different employments of nanotechnology in
store building and additionally upgraded oil recuperation strategies, little thought has been paid to utilization
of surfactant/nanoparticle techniques as an inventive surface transformer and a double recuperation
substance specialist in concoction flooding and the investigations ordinarily incorporate interfacial conduct
of various types of surfactants within the sight of nanoparticles.
(Samira Emadi, 2017) Inspected the impact of ZrO2 on interfacial conduct of surfactant arrangement.
Additionally, Rodriguez et al. (2009) chip away at sedimentary shakes and examined the development of
focused surface treated silica nanoparticles on it.

Mechanism for Fluid Displacement

The bringing down of Interfacial pressure in oil recuperation amongst oil and watery stage in a repository
and wettability modification is a basic issue. Utilizing improved oil recuperation by surfactant flooding is
a decent method to expand the slender number by diminishing interfacial pressure between store liquids.
In any case, (B.A. Suleimanov, 2011) examined the utilization of nanofluid for upgraded oil recuperation
and expressed that nanofluids containing fluid suspensions of nonferrous metal nanoparticles (estimate
70e150 nm) scattered in a watery arrangement of anionic surfactant (sulfanole-alkyl aryl sodium sulfonate),
which brought about an expansion in the effectiveness of the oil removal by 35%, contrasted with that
accomplished utilizing a surfactant arrangement unaccompanied in a homogeneous permeable media and
17% of every a heterogeneous permeable medium at a temperature of 25 C. They presumed that the
improved oil recuperation is because of decrease in interfacial pressure amongst oil and watery stages and
change in the stream normal for nanofluid.

METHODOLOGY
This section comprises the information on the materials used and the procedure experimental procedures
used in this study. The application of bio surfactant and nanoparticle blend was sighted in previous papers
and this makes it a very vital research area. Surfactant flooding majorly recovers oil typically based on
interfacial tension reduction and wettability alteration of reservoir rocks.
All the experiments were performed at ambient conditions (temperature of 30°C and atmospheric
pressure)

Materials
Few Berea core samples of similar dimensions were used for this experimental work. The materials used
in this project includes: four (4) core, 15 liters of crude oil sample with API °31, surfactant (Jatropha oil),
nanoparticles (silicon oxide), produced water (Brine) which was used as the based fluid, and acetone.
SPE-193485-MS 3

Bio-Surfactant
The surfactant used for this experiment work was prepared by the application of saponification reaction
between non-edible seed oil (Jatropha oil) an anionic surfactant with an approximately high foaming
strength.

Nanoparticle
The nano-fluid was set by diluting the highly concentrated nano suspensions with a dispersion agent,
(deionized water). The nanoparticle in use was SiO2(20-70) nm, purity-98-99.5% and specific area 140m2/
gr.). 50mg of SiO2 was spread in 1 liter of deionized water to make nano-fluid suspensions. The suspensions
were diluted to a concentration of 0.005wt%, 0.025wt% and 0.07 5wt% for testing concentration.
Silicon oxide is a very hard substance with a very high melting point of 1,610 °C and a boiling point of
2,230 °C. It is insoluble in water and does not conduct electricity. The Table below shows the properties
of silicon oxide.

Table 1—Silicon Oxide properties

Surface Area 140m2/g

Size 20-70nm

Purity Above 80.5%

Wettability Hydrophilic

Dispersible in Phase Water

Bulk density 0.15g/cc

Equipment
Reservoir Permeability Tester. The reservoir permeability tester is apparatus initially intended for testing
core samples to measure their permeability. An additional extension of its function is its use as a core
flooding equipment. Core samples can be water flooded or gas injected depending on the nature of the
work. Parameters such as water and oil saturations, residual oil and water saturations, oil recoveries and
permeability changes may be measured and calculated while using the RPT. For this work oil recoveries
after (water, bio-surfactant and nano-fluid flooding was measured), porosity, water and oil saturations and
residual oil saturations were measured. Figure 1 below shows the diagram of RPT and its features.
4 SPE-193485-MS

Figure 1—Reservoir Permeability Tester (Ofite - Reservoir

Core flood Setup

This comprises of three (3) vessels referred to as accumulators, were filled with brine, crude oil and B-
NP solution.
All accumulators had regulators on the inlets and outlets for fluid flow. A model of the schematic
illustration of the Coreflood system is presented below.

Core flood Scheme

After the cores were cleaned and initially saturated with 100% brine using the manual core saturator, they
were positioned in the core holder with the aid of rubber sleeves and metallic plates for firm padding.
A drainage process was initiated at the beginning of each flooding experiment on each Berea core samples
to attain connate water saturation when it is displaced by crude oil. Oil was injected into the core plugs at
5cc/min until brine expelled from the core sample leaving some connate water.
After this process, the irreducible water saturation, and oil saturation were estimated. Water flooding
process was performed on the individual core samples for secondary recovery process and some amount of
oil were recovered and estimated graphically with the residual oil saturation. The core was treated with bio-
surfactant flooding on all the core samples used for this experiment and later B-NPs was injected.

Experiments
Flooding experiments
Flooding experiments were done to estimate the influence of surfactant and nanoparticle-augmented
surfactant flooding method as an oil recovery method. Based on pre-conducted experiments, different types
of solutions were injected.
A particular type of silica nanoparticles (SiO2) already mixed in distilled water with bio-surfactant was
tested with core flooding. First water was used to displace the till the residual oil saturation was attained.
Subsequently, the surfactant solution without nano-particles was injected till no oil was observer and later a
mixture of nano-particle with the surfactant was tested on the same core sample and an incremental amount
of recovery was noted and recorded. The table below show the various result of the flooding experiments
on the Berea core samples.
SPE-193485-MS 5

Results and Analysis

This section highlight the experimental work performed throughout this study. Effects of experiments like
oil recovery during water flooding, surfactant without Nano particles and with Nano particles were recorded
after investigation, interfacial and adsorption measurements are discussed.
The initiation of this flooding experiment is done by injecting a single fluid (brine) for absolute
permeability determination of the core samples this procedure was conducted and reported on all the core
samples used for this experimental work. Flooding sustained until the graph lines/plots of differential
pressure against time displayed a straight line. This represents steady state condition of fluid that was
transported through the core. Then permeability values were recorded for each core sample as stated in the
Table 2 below.

Table 2—Determination of porosity for all the cores

Berea Core Core Core Bulk Core Core Core pore Porosity % Absolute
Length (cm) Diameter Volume (cc) weight@ weight@ volume (cc) Permeability
(cm) Saturated (g) dry (g) (md)

Core B1 6.2 3.7 67.2 165.5 152.1 13.4 0.199 405 225.3

Core B2 6.25 3.7 67.2 165.1 151.0 14.1 0.209 821 247.3

Core B3 6.25 3.7 67.7 165.2 151.9 13.3 0.196 455 583.5

Core B4 6.3 3.7 67.3 164.7 151.0 13.7 0.203 566 305.1

The porosity (orange) and Permeability (dark blue) are presented for the four (4) cores used. The
porosities of the cores are 19.99%, 20.98%, 19.65% and 20.36% while the permeability are 225.3 md, 247.3
md, 583.5 md, and 305.1 md respectively as shown in figure 2 above. Core B3 has the highest permeability
while core B1 has the lowest.

Figure 2—Experimental setup of the core flooding apparatus.

(1) pump fluid, (2) pump, (3) valves, (4) displacing reservoir fluid, (5) piston to separate the
oils, (6) crude oil, (7) NSB, (8) B-NPs, (9) pressure gauge, (10) bypass valve, (11) Hassler
cell holder with core (12) sleeve pressure, (13) effluent into test tubes (Aurand et al., 2014).
6 SPE-193485-MS

Figure 3—Porosity and Permeability chart

Samples prepared for flooding different cores

Prepared sample of different concentration of the Bio-surfactant was mixed with SiO2 nano-particle @
different weight. This samples a used during the flooding experiment on each Berea core samples in similar
pattern.

Samples Sample 1 Sample 2

Run 1 Bio-Surfactant(conc 1) + 0.27wt%SiO2 Bio-Surfactant(conc 2) + 0.27wt

%SiO2

Run 2 Bio-Surfactant(conc 1) + 0.33wt%SiO2 Bio-Surfactant(conc 2) + 0.33wt

%SiO2

Run 3 Bio-Surfactant(conc 1) + 0.47wt%SiO2 Bio-Surfactant(conc 2) + 0.47wt

%SiO2

Flooding experimental 1
From the experimental results, it was discovered that after the injection of almost 3PV of water, for core B1,
(at an injection rate of 3cc/min) oil recovery ceased and water breakthrough commenced thereby leaving
some residual oil which could still be recovered.
This necessitated the injection of Core B1 at 0.5cc/min with B-NPs mixture at different concentration.
Each flooding gave an additional recovery of oil on each core samples. The experimental results are
shown in the tables and graph (see Tables 3, 4, and graphically on Figure 5-6).
SPE-193485-MS 7

Figure 4—Core B1-Oil recovery after water flooding, bio-surfactant flooding

without nano-particles and with run 1 (sample 1) and run 2 (sample 1)

Figure 5—Core B2-Oil recovery after water flooding, bio-surfactant flooding

without nano-particles and with run 1 (sample 1) and run 2 (sample 1)
8 SPE-193485-MS

Figure 6—Core B1, B2, B3, B4-Oil recovery after bio-surfactant flooding
without nano-particles and with run 1 (sample 1) and run 2 (sample 1)

Table 3—Core flooding result for Core B1, Core B2, Core B3, Core B4 at different B-PNs concentration.

Berea Core Initial water Initial oil Oil saturation Oil recovery after Oil recovery after Oil recovery after
saturation (%) saturation (%) after water bio-surfactant Run 1 (Sample 1) Run 3 (Sample 1)
flooding (%) flooding (%)

Core B1 18.26 81.74 41.04 41.64 44.05 46.16

Core B2 20.06 79.94 57.15 58.53 62.21 66.57

Core B3 15.56 84.44 46.21 47.24 50.08 53.8

Core B4 15.89 84.11 53.74 55.04 58.15 61.97

Table 4—Core flooding result for Core B1, Core B2, Core B3, and Core B4 at different B-PNs concentration.

Berea Core Initial water Initial oil Oil recovery Oil recovery after Oil recovery after Oil recovery after
saturation(%) saturation(%) after water bio-surfactant Run 1 (Sample 2) Run 3 (Sample 2)
flooding (%) flooding (%)

Core B1 18.26 81.74 42.94 44.16 46.57 49.48

Core B2 20.06 79.94 55.41 57.3 60.98 65.77

Core B3 15.56 84.44 58.01 60.46 65.09 68.92

Core B4 15.89 84.11 45.63 47.65 51.67 57.4

The figure above clearly justifies the graphical expression of the core flooding experiment. The various
recovery extents is represented with different colors ranging from water flooding which recover certain
percentage of oil for

• 41% for Core B1

• 57.15% for Core B2,

• 46.21% for Core B3

• 53.74% for Core B4

SPE-193485-MS 9

Note: All recovery is flooded with sample 1.

Flooding experimental 2
From the experimental results, it was discovered that after the injection of almost 3PV of water, for core B1,
(at an injection rate of 3cc/min) oil recovery ceased and water breakthrough commenced thereby leaving
some residual oil which could still be recovered. This necessitated the injection of Core B1 at 0.5cc/min
with B-NPs mixture at different concentration. The flooding gave an additional maximum recovery of 8%
of oil. The experimental results are shown in the tables and graph (see Tables 3 and 4).

Figure 7—Core B1,B2,B3,B4-Oil recovery after bio-surfactant flooding

without nano-particles and with run 1 (sample 2) and run 2 (sample 2)

Conclusions
This work has been able to effectively deduce that a combination of bio-surfactant and nanoparticles (B-
NPs) as an oil recovery mechanism is able to increase oil recovery after water flooding in core plug samples.
To do this, several experiments were carried out to examine the potential of B-NPs as a dual recovery
agent EOR. Based on these experiments, a combination of bio-surfactant and (B-NPs) nanoparticles have
the potential to squeeze trapped oil and reduced the residual oil saturation by its reactions with reservoir
fluids and rock. The use of nano-fluids as an improved oil recovery process for heavy oil reservoirs resulted
to a 5% to approximately 8% increase of oil by altering the wettability of the formation.

Acknowlegdement
The authors are grateful to Covenant University for the financial support and permission to publish this
work.

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Recovery in Berea Sandstone.
10 SPE-193485-MS

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