Abstract
Favorable microemulsion rheology is required for achieving low surfactant retention and economic viability of chemical EOR. Co-solvents play a pivotal role in obtaining favorable microemulsion rheology as well as many other aspects of chemical EOR. We measured the partitioning of co-solvents between phases to better understand their behavior and how to select the best co-solvent for chemical EOR. There is an optimal co-solvent partition coefficient for microemulsion systems. Commercial co-solvents used for chemical EOR are actually mixtures of different components. We used HPLC to measure the partitioning of the constitutive components of phenol ethoxylate co-solvents between oil and water phases and between microemulsion and excess oil and water phases. These measurements show that the components partition independently and the partitioning of individual components is often different from the average. The co-solvent partition coefficients between oil and water were systematically evaluated as functions of the number of ethylene oxide groups, number of propylene oxide groups, temperature, salinity, and the equivalent alkane carbon number (EACN) of the oil. Novel alkoxylate co-solvents were also evaluated for chemical EOR. The novel alkoxylate co-solvents can be more effectively tailored to match the characteristics of different crude oils. Coreflood experiments were conducted to investigate co-solvent transport and retention. Co-solvents were identified that showed excellent performance and low retention.
