Perpustakaan Digital ITB

Currently, two reasons become the main interest in chemical enhanced oil recovery: the decrease in oil production and the fast rise in global energy consumption. Surfactant flooding is a well-known technique of chemical enhanced oil recovery. Prior research has shown that the injection of surfactant solution into reservoirs may substantially increase oil recovery after waterflooding. The surfactant flooding process to improve oil recovery still need further understanding of its mechanism. One of them is the existence of pressure build-up during surfactant injection in coreflooding. In this study, surfactant flooding was investigated using a micromodel to visualize the displacement of the fluid in porous media, which is important for understanding the process of surfactant flooding. Several fluid compatibility tests were conducted to determine the optimum condition of surfactant formulation, including the IFT measurement, aqueous stability test, and phase behavior tests. According to the results of this study, the formation of water-in-oil microemulsions in porous media caused clogging of water channels, resulting in pressure build-up. Then, the flow was diverted to the unswept zone, which caused a significant improvement in sweeping efficiency, as shown in the visualization of the image on the micromodel.