Correlation of Palm Oil MES Surfactant Characteristics with Light Crude Oil Rambun Pamenan Khaifi, Asri Nugrahanti, Rini Setiati, Muhammad Taufiq Fathaddin, Dwi Atty Mardiana
Trisakti University
Abstract
To meet energy needs, increasing oil production in Indonesia is very important. One way is to use Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) with palm oil Methyl Ester Sulfonate (MES) surfactant as an injection fluid. Palm oil can be synthesized into surfactants.
The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of palm MES surfactant against different types of light crude oil.
Laboratory tests were conducted to analyze the surfactant^s characteristics, including aqueous stability, phase behavior, interfacial tension, and static and dynamic adsorption. The results indicated that all surfactant concentrations used had good aqueous stability. The optimal middle phase emulsion was achieved with a surfactant concentration of 1.25%, resulting in emulsions ranging from 7.50% to 12.50%. The interfacial tension values ranged from 0.24 dyne/cm to 0.31 dyne/cm, with dynamic adsorption ranging from 0.77 mg/g to 4.89 mg/g. The core flood test demonstrated that the highest increase in oil recovery, at 17.86%, was observed in light crude oil with an API gravity of 39.
From this study, it can be concluded that the surfactant characteristics of palm MES, especially middle phase emulsion, interfacial tension and dynamic adsorption have a high correlation with oil recovery for light crude oil types.
