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Performance Evaluation of Rhamnolipid & Sophorolipid Biosurfactants Capable of Wettability Change and Oil Recovery Increase

Aghaei, Sadegh | 2022

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 55434 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Taghikhani, Vahid; Baghban Salehi, Mahsa; Mokhtarani, Babak
  7. Abstract:
  8. As fossil fuels are still the world's most important source of energy, as well as the maturity of most of the world's oil reservoirs, there is a need for enhanced oil recovery methods to meet the world's increasing oil demands. MEOR methods are new and promising methods that are still in the research and development stage. One of the MEOR methods is the use of biosurfactants, which increase the oil recovery by two mechanisms: 1) reducing the interfacial tension between water and oil and 2) changing the wettability of the rock. In this study, the performance of two glycolipid biosurfactants, rhamnolipid and sophorolipid, in increasing oil recovery has been investigated. Initially, surface tension and interfacial tension tests were performed. The effect of salinity in interfacial tension reduction has been considered. In this experiment, it was found that rhamnolipid solution at 1000 ppm concentration and 60,000 ppm salinity reduced the interfacial tension between water and oil to 5.42 mN/m and sophorolipid solution at 5000 ppm concentration and 80000 ppm salinity reduced the interfacial tension to 7.93 mN/m. In wettability test, by measuring the contact angle, it was found that rhamnolipid solution and sophorolipid solution both have the ability to change the wettability of carbonate rock from oil-wet to water-wet. The rhamnolipid solution increases the contact angle of the oil drop on the carbonate rock from 41.42° to 109.26° and sophorolipid solution from 32.16° to 104.12°. Finally, the ability of these biosurfactants to increase oil recovery has been measured using different micromodels. For this purpose, homogeneous, heterogeneous and layered micromodels have been used. The oil recovery for rhamnolipid solution at the optimal concentration and salinity in these micromodels is 80%, 70% and 74%, respectively, and for sophorolipid solution at the optimal concentration and salinity is 71%, 61% and 69%. These results describe rhamnolipid and sophorolipid as two effective substances in increasing oil recovery
  9. Keywords:
  10. Enhanced Oil Recovery ; Biosurfactant ; Wettability ; Micromodel ; Interfacial Tension ; Sophorolipid Biosurfactants ; Rhamnolipid Biosurfactant

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