On the application of different surfactant types to measure the carbonate’s adsorption density: A parametric study

Due to the cost efficiency and environmentally friendly surfactant features in enhanced oil recovery techniques, the appropriate designation of surfactant flooding should be considered. It is essential to evaluate the crucial factors that affect surfactant adsorption on rock surfaces to eliminate the total economic losses of surfactant retention and adsorption in porous media. In this paper, the considerable influence of temperature, different surfactant concentrations, and polymer addition were experimentally investigated for dolomite minerals extracted from Pabdeh formation. According to this study, higher adsorption density has occurred at lower temperatures, which implies lower kinetic energy between the surfactant molecules. For 25 ℃, the adsorption density is about 41 mg/g, and it has the lowest value of 100 ℃. It is about 17 mg/g. By the increase of surfactant concentration for different time steps, adsorption density has been increased. For the surfactant concentration of 5 Wt. %, the adsorption density is about 42 mg/g; however, it is for 0.15 Wt. % of surfactant concentration, the adsorption density is about 1 mg/g. Moreover, due to the higher stability of polymers, adsorption density has been decreased by the addition of polymer. The stopping time for each surfactant concentration is about 6.5 h for the surfactant concentration of 5 Wt. %. Consequently, the critical micelle concentration point is about 3.5 Wt. %, 4 Wt. %, and 5 Wt. % for linear alkylbenzene sulfonic acid, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide, and Triton X-100, respectively. This change in the conductivity is related to the start of the micelling process by increasing surfactant concentration.