Experimental Investigation of Using Albizia Julibrissin Extract as a Plant Surfactant for Oil Recovery.

In recent years, the use of natural surfactants, instead of chemical surfactants, as surface active agents in chemical methods of oil recovery has been under consideration due to the absence of environmental problems. In this study, a new plant, Albizia Julibrissin (Albizia), was introduced as a natural surfactant. Our novelty resides in a unified approach that deals with the introduction of Albizia Julibrissin as a new natural surfactant, the interpretation of the chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) objectives, the interface reactions, and the induced optimization to improve oil recovery. For this purpose, the plant was extracted using the Soxhlet extraction method in aqueous base solutions, and the interfacial tension between the natural surfactant aqueous solutions and kerosene as an oil phase was measured by the pendant drop method. The critical micelle concentration structure formed by this material was determined by the interfacial tension tests and confirmed by the electrical conductivity tests. The results show that Albizia extract begins to form micelles at a concentration of 3.5 wt %, which is the critical concentration of Albizia plant micelles. At this concentration, the interfacial tension between the deionized water and the oil phase was reduced from 34 to 10 mN/m, which indicates a significant decrease in the interfacial tension by this plant. Carbonate rock was employed for the core flooding experiments in order to investigate the effect of Albizia extract (AE) on oil recovery. Also, based on the results, by using AE, the wettability of the oil-wet carbonate rocks was altered from about 165.02° to 86.59°. Finally, the AE enhanced ultimate oil recovery by about 11.6% of original oil in place in tertiary recovery for a carbonate rock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]