Preliminary evaluation of mulberry leaf-derived surfactant on interfacial tension in an oil-aqueous system: EOR application

To handle successfully the augmentation of energy consumption in the four corners of the world, there is an urgent need to produce more oil. Stagnant oil production and recovery unknowingly have made more risky by conventional methods. Therefore, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods for producing more oil from the addressed oil reservoirs are being paid attention. Keep in mind that, after primary and secondary oil recovery methods more 65 % of the original oil-in-place remains in the reservoirs. Owing to this fact, the importance of EOR methods is highlighted. Surfactant flooding is an EOR technique targeted at reducing the amount of residual oil left in pore spaces by lowering the interfacial tension between oil and water. In this study, we extracted a natural-based surfactant from the leaves of the mulberry tree. Micro-sized particles of mulberry leaf were used to formulate a micro-fluid. The results demonstrated that a micro-fluid containing only 1 wt.% of micro-sized mulberry leaf particles was able to lower the IFT of a system consisting of distilled water and kerosene by 60%. Finally to figure out the effect of extracted surfactant on sweep efficiency of the brine flooding, core displacement apparatus utilized. Based on the obtained results of core flooding, addressed surfactant can increase sweep efficiency from 49% to 66.8% of Original Oil In Place (OOIP). The results of this research are first-break in use of mulberry in petroleum upstream. In addition, outcomes of this study could help us in the future studies about application of natural surfactants in the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) goals in petroleum reservoirs which is a part of our future works. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.