THE MECHANISM OF SURFACTANT IN MICROEMULSION PHASEBEHAVIOR

This research presents the behavior of surfactant in microemulsion during chemical EOR process. Phase behavior study is usually used to interpret the interaction of an aqueous phase containing surfactant with crude oil to form the desired microemulsion. Winsor Type III microemulsion is the best for EOR application in which excess volume of oil and water are solubilized by surfactant in the middle phase. However, no studies were performed to investigate the surfactant distribution during Type III microemulsion. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the surfactant partition tor different salinities within Type III microemulsion. Phase behavior experiments were conducted at various salinity increments to generate gel and liquid crystal free microemulsion using surfactant, cosurfactant and cosolvent. Effect of varying surfactant, cosurfactant and cosolvent concentration on microemulsion behavior has been presented.