Synthesis of Biopolymer from Coconut Residue and Performance as Drag Reducing Agent (DRA) in Water Injection Well

Over the past 20 years, polymers have been utilized in oil and gas industries as drag
reducing agent (DRA) to overcome pressure drop and optimize the flow capacity in
water flooding system. Yet a new eco-friendly DRA extracted from organic materials
(coconut residue) is introduced to replace polymers due to its abundance and ability to
perform as effective as polymer in accelerating the flow in oil and gas systems. This
research intends to describe the preparation process of CMC from coconut waste and
then evaluate its effectiveness as DRA in water injection well. The result of injecting
these chemicals in water injection well will reduce the number of injection wells by
causing a significant improvement in the flow rate which will be able to push the
hydrocarbon towards production column. At the meantime, the effect of DRA upon
formation permeability is going to be investigated as well as the mechanical shear
degradation of biopolymer. The effect of this new drag reducing agent extracted from
coconut residue on formation permeability will be evaluated by using benchtop
permeability system and observe if such permeability reduction can be induced.
Mechanical degradation obstructs the implementation of biopolymer for turbulent drag
reduction. In general mechanical degradation refers to the process in which the chemical
chain is broken due to mechanical disturbance and result in losing biopolymer its
practical usage as DRA. Thus, mechanical degradation is studied by exposing 0.5% and
1.0% solution of biopolymer to a high stirring speed and observe its influence on the
viscosity of the solution with respect to time. The decrease of viscosity with time is an
evident of mechanical degradation of biopolymer which is educed due to shear stirring.