EOR USING IONIC LIQUIDS

As the fact goes, oil is not a renewable energy. As this powerful source is gradually depleting, the demand to recover any single possible drop of the reserves is given serious concern. In conjunction, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), which is a third stage of oil recovery that was carried out after secondary recovery, plays an important role in retrieving petroleum more efficiently. In improving the fluid flows, this project works on refining a compatible Ionic Liquids (ILs) in EOR applications. ILs are salts that are in liquid state below 100°C, composed wholly of anions and cations (Divya Nair G, Development of Ionic Liquids as a Novel EOR Agent Master Symposium, 2012). Studies show that long alkyl chain ionic liquids have the potential to decrease the interfacial tension (IFT) of n-alkanes. Reservoir oil residual will be mobilized if the capillary forces are reduced due to the reduction of IFT against crude oil. In this study, the characterization of ILs will be carried out after its synthesis. After that, the best synthesized ILs will be attempted and run for effectiveness of EOR by using core flood test.