Effect of Temperature on the Extraction of Biopolymer from Coconut Residue and the Performance as Drag Reducing Agent in Water Injection System: A Comparative Study

Synthetic and chemically synthesized polymers manufactured as Drag Reducing Agent (DRA) have been proven to be successful in minimising the effect of frictional pressure drop along injection tubing of water injection system. Several studies have been done to find alternatives on DRA sources from natural and biodegradable polymers such as Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) which are more environmental friendly yet performing as good as the synthetic polymer which in this case is Polyacrylamide (PAM). In this study, CMC were extracted from dried grated coconut flesh after the extraction of coconut milk or so called Coconut Residue (CR) by synthesizing the cellulose under the alkali-catalysed reaction with monochloroacetic acid. 27 samples of CMC were extracted by varying the reaction parameters of temperature and the relationship with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentration and reaction time with the highest yield of CMC recorded at 28.991 grams at the highest reaction parameters. Drag Reducing Agent (DRA) performance were tested by utilising laboratory scale flowmeter test rig setup and manometer readings are recorded across and after the Orifice plate. From the flowmeter test, the samples extracted at the combination of highest temperature of 60oC, highest NaOH concentration of 60 wt%, and longest reaction time of 240 minutes have the highest Drag Reduction Percentage (%DR) of 21.79% as compared to Polyacrylamide which reach at best 1.28%. On the other hand, the combination of lowest extraction parameters of CMC from CR still have better %DR as compared to PAM at 2.59% and 0.86% respectively. The successful of this research indicated that the CMC extracted from CR can performed as DRA better than PAM at certain extraction parameters which will then be a kick-start to transform wastes to wealth.