Evaluating the Effects of New Natural Surfactants on the Wettability Alteration of Carbonate Rocks and Water/Air Surface Tension Reduction

Due to the increasing in energy consumption and the reduction of new hydrocarbon reservoirs, the best strategy can be to maximize the recovery factor from the now or previous reservoirs. One of the common methods of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is to change the wettability and interfacial tension reduction using surfactants but chemical surfactants have several drawbacks including high cost and environmental impacts. Therefore, it is better to use natural surfactants to solve these problems. In this study, a number of natural surfactants extracted from Grape, Mulberry, Pomegranate and, Apricot tree leaves were used to alter the wettability of carbonate rocks and also decrease the surface tension. For these purposes, different concentrations of these surfactants; ۱wt%, ۲wt%, ۵wt% were evaluated. The results showed that the natural surfactant derived from Grape leaves has the greatest impact on changing the wettability and surface tension and can be a good candidate for EOR.

Keywords:

Enhanced Oil Recovery , Natural Surfactants , Wettability Alteration , Surface Tension Reduction , Carbonate Reservoirs ,