A comprehensive review on Technical Aspects of Caustic Flooding for the application of Enhanced Oil Recovery

Abstract

Alkaline flooding is one of the important methods of enhanced oil recovery. This paper mainly highlights the potential of using the alkaline flooding and its effect on various parameters such as wettability alteration, interfacial tension, contact angle etc. It was found that the suitable combination of additives could improve the recovery of heavy oil. It was seen by core flooding experiments that the use of NaOH alone or a mixture of NaOH and Na₂CO₃, could be enhanced the ultimate oil recovery by 10%. The study of contact angle also showed that it could change from 24 degrees to about 160 degrees with the use of alkali. A review of MSEA (Mixed Surfactant Enhanced Alkaline) has also been conducted at various temperatures, whilst taking into consideration various parameters such as physical, interfacial property measurements and phase stability, which has resulted in the substantial recovery of hydrocarbons from the reservoir. Moreover, the effects of adding Silica Nanoparticle in alkaline solution is studied which alters the wettability of the formation from oil-wet to water-wet and the other properties such as viscosity, IFT (Interfacial Tension), permeability which increases the recovery rate from 24 to 27%. Also based on the flooding sequence the effects on the recovery are measured. The effects of Sodium ion, pH and acid content on IFT activity of the crude oil are studied and the increase and decrease in IFT is measured.