THE EFFECT OF PRECIPITANT INHIBITOR ON THE MICROEMULSION PHASE BEHAVIOUR CRUDE OIL, ALKALI AND SURFACTANT SYSTEM

Chemical flooding combination involving alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) has
been recognized as a cost-effective chemical flooding process for light and medium oils.
The main challenge in using ASP flooding is the use of hard and high saline brine due to
precipitation. Precipitations will result in blocked of pore spaces which will eventually
reduce the volume of recoverable crude oil. Furthermore, the reaction to form the
precipitations will also decrease the pH of the solutions and reduce the surfactant
performance and increase surfactant absorption into the rocks.
In this project, acrylic acid will be introduced into the formulation to prevent the
precipitation from occurring. However, this will results in changes to parameters such as
salinity, alkali concentration, surfactant concentration and reduce the aqueous phase
solubility. Furthermore, as the mentioned parameters changes, it could lead to the
changes of phase behaviour of microemulsion. This will later affect the IFT produced by
the ASP flooding formulation and ultimately, the amount of recoverable oil.