Experimental Investigations of Behaviour of Biosurfactants in Brine Solutions Relevant to Hydrocarbon Reservoirs
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Materials and Sample Preparation
2.2. Critical Micelle Concentration Determination
2.3. Biosurfactants Solubility Tests
2.4. Biosurfactants Stability Tests
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Determination of CMC and Gibbs Free Energy of Rhamnolipids and Greenzyme
3.2. Effect of Brine Composition and Concentration on Biosurfactants Solubility
3.3. Aqueous Stability of Rhamnolipid and Greenzyme
3.3.1. Salinity Effects
3.3.2. Temperature Effects
4. Conclusions
- Rhamnolipid and Greenzyme have demonstrated low CMC that is desirable of any surfactant. The surface tension of both biosurfactants was found to decrease with increasing concentration.
- Rhamnolipid demonstrated higher surface activity than Greenzyme while Greenzyme shows higher aggregation capacity that favours micelle formation than rhamnolipid.
- Greenzyme was found to be soluble in all brine solutions, while rhamnolipid solubility was found to be more dependent on brine composition than solution pH and ionic strength. Hence, biosurfactant aqueous behaviour should be carried out with relevant brine composition.
- The results of this study have also shown that Greenzyme can be used for EOR applications at salinity up to 3 M, typical for many hydrocarbon reservoirs while rhamnolipid cannot be used due to its insolubility. However, at low to medium salinity condition, both of them can be used for EOR investigations.
- Both biosurfactants demonstrated stable behavior in surface tension in solutions up to 3 M and temperatures up to 70 C, making these biosurfactants a suitable substitute for hazardous chemical surfactants used in chemical EOR.
- This study has also shown that rhamnolipid and Greenzyme show highest surface tension and instability in NaCl solution that is commonly used in biosurfactant studies, while they were stable in multi-component brine solutions.
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Ions | FBM (M) | SW (M) | NaCl (M) | CaCl (M) | MgCl (M) | Na+Ca (M) | Na+Mg (M) | Na+Ca+Mg (M) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Na | 1.463 | 0.550 | 3.000 | - | - | 1.200 | 2.500 | 1.103 |
Ca | 0.420 | 0.014 | - | 1.000 | - | 0.600 | - | 0.559 |
Mg | 0.091 | 0.045 | - | - | 1.000 | - | 0.167 | 0.074 |
Cl | 2.485 | 0.620 | 3.000 | 2.000 | 2.000 | 2.400 | 2.835 | 2.367 |
SO | 0.002 | 0.024 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Ionic strength | 3.000 | 0.750 | 3.000 | 3.000 | 3.000 | 3.000 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
pH | 5.01 | 6.04 | 6.37 | 4.82 | 5.41 | 6.21 | 7.17 | 6.42 |
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Udoh, T.; Vinogradov, J. Experimental Investigations of Behaviour of Biosurfactants in Brine Solutions Relevant to Hydrocarbon Reservoirs. Colloids Interfaces 2019, 3, 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/colloids3010024
Udoh T, Vinogradov J. Experimental Investigations of Behaviour of Biosurfactants in Brine Solutions Relevant to Hydrocarbon Reservoirs. Colloids and Interfaces. 2019; 3(1):24. https://doi.org/10.3390/colloids3010024
Chicago/Turabian StyleUdoh, Tinuola, and Jan Vinogradov. 2019. "Experimental Investigations of Behaviour of Biosurfactants in Brine Solutions Relevant to Hydrocarbon Reservoirs" Colloids and Interfaces 3, no. 1: 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/colloids3010024