Application of Novel Colloidal Silica Nanoparticles in the Reduction of Adsorption of Surfactant and Improvement of Oil Recovery Using Surfactant Polymer Flooding

Surfactant polymer flooding is one of the most common chemical enhanced oil recovery techniques, which improves not only the microscopic displacement of the fluid through the formation of the emulsion but also the volumetric sweep efficiency of the fluid by altering the viscosity of the displacing fluid. However, one constraint of surfactant flooding is the loss of the surfactant by adsorption onto the reservoir rock surface. Hence, in this study, an attempt has been made to reduce the adsorption of the surfactant on the rock surface using novel colloidal silica nanoparticles (CSNs). CSNs were used as an additive to improve the performance of the conventional surfactant polymer flooding. The reduction in adsorption was observed in both the presence and absence of a polymer. The presence of a polymer also reduced the adsorption of the surfactant. Addition of 25 vol % CSNs effectively reduced the adsorption of up to 61% in the absence of a polymer, which increased to 64% upon the introduction of 1000 ppm polymer in the solution at 2500 ppm of the surfactant concentration at 25 °C. The adsorption of surfactant was also monitored with time, and it was found to be increasing with respect to time. The adsorption of surfactant increased from 1.292 mg/g after 0.5 days to 4.179 mg/g after 4 days at 2500 ppm of surfactant concentration at 25 °C. The viscosity, surface tension, and wettability studies were also conducted on the chemical slug used for flooding. The addition of CSNs effectively reduced the surface tension as well as shifted the wettability toward water-wet at 25 °C. Sand pack flooding experiments were performed at 60 °C to access the potential of CSNs in oil recovery, and it was found that the addition of 25 vol % CSNs in the conventional surfactant polymer chemical slug aided in the additional oil recovery up to 5% as compared to that of the conventional surfactant polymer slug.