Effect Of Nanoparticle Crystallite Sizes In A Nanofluid On The Interfacial Tension Of Oil For Oil Recovery In EOR

Oil production are decreasing from days to days. Hence, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) have been developed to maximize the production. EOR is not a new thing in oil and gas industry. EOR which consist of several collection of technologies-involving the use of thermal, gas and chemicals means for producing more oil. Nanotechnology is one of the advanced technology that finding its place in EOR process as it provides a high potential for oil and gas recovery. This can be shown from recent research projects that nanotechnology has the potential to solve several problems in the petroleum industry. Recent studies shows that, Aluminum oxide nanoparticles for example, has been proved as it can improved the oil recovery. However, the sizes of the nanoparticles will also contribute to the effect on the interfacial tension of oil. Therefore, to find out the effect of this nanoparticle sizes is the primary objective in this study. In this study, aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles is used and the experimental study on the effect of this nanoparticle sizes in a nanofluid on the interfacial tension of oil is conducted under surface conditions. Four samples of different average crystallite size were used to study the effect of particle size on the oil recovery. The results obtained from this experiment indicate that the Al2O3 nanoparticles are good agents for EOR and Al2O3 nanofluid which consists of average crystallite size of 14-18nm reduces the interfacial tension (IFT) between crude oil and water and gives the highest recovery of 43% ROIP.