Synthesis of Cleavable Aryl Sulfonate Anionic Surfactants and a Study of their Surface Activity

Research on Surfactant Flooding in High-temperature and High-salinity Reservoir for Enhanced Oil Recovery

The aim of this work was to research the solution properties of a new surfactant flooding system for high temperature and high salinity reservoir, which include trimeric sulfonate surfactants 1,2,3-tri(2-oxypropyl sulfonation-3-alkylether-propoxyl) propanes (TTSS-n) and anion-nonionic surfactant NPSO [sodium nonyl phenol polyethyleneoxy ether sulfonate, (EO = 10)]. The critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) of five trimeric sulfonate surfactants were smaller than 400 mg L−1. Furthermore, their interfacial tensions (IFTs) could reach an ultralow value with Tazhong 4 oil at lower concentrations. Through optimized formulation, we found that TTSS-12 had better properties and was selected as the major component of the surfactant flooding system. We designed an optimal formulation of the surfactant flooding system with 1 000 mg · L−1 TTSS-12 and 1 000 mg · L−1 NPSO surfactant. The system with a very small surfactant concentration could reach ultralow IFT with Tazhong 4 crude oils at high temperature (110 °C) and high concentration formation brine (112,228.8 mg/L TDS), which proved that the simpler component surfactant had better reservoir compatibility. NPSO could weaken the disadvantage of the surfactant TTSS-12 in oil/water interface. The stability of this surfactant flooding system was evaluated by aging time, static adsorption and chromatographic separation. All experiments showed that it still keeps ultralow IFT in high temperature and high salinity conditions. Coreflooding experimentation showed that average oil recovery reached 9.8 wt% by surfactant flooding, therefore, it is feasible to use as a surfactant flooding system for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).