Green Surfactant: Synthesis of Sulfonate Surfactants Using Strecker Modification Techniques and Surfactant Formulation for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (CEOR) Applications

Abstract

Despite the continuing development of sustainable sources of energy, crude oil and natural gas resources are remaining crucial elements of the international economy. With global petroleum and liquid fuel demand continually increasing, improving the efficiency of extraction from existing natural reserves of petroleum is of utmost importance as the world gradually transitions away from fossil fuels toward more sustainable sources. Toward that end, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are developed and used to minimize the amount of crude oil and petroleum that is being left behind in underground reservoirs from conventional drilling extraction methods. In this study, surfactants are beintg synthesized using a fatty acid derived from palm oil as a hydrophobic group and sulfonate as a hydrophilic group. The use of vegetable oil as the raw material is likely due to its abundance and environmental friendliness. Sulfonation of anionic surfactant is performed by utilizing the Strecker modification technique in which an alkali metal bisulfite (versus sulfite) is used to sulfonate the epoxide group. The preferred sulfonating reagent is a mixture of sodium bisulfite and sodium sulfite (1:1; 1:2;1:2.5), as well as various time reactions. The product surfactant is characterized by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) to determine the optimum conditions and reaction conversion. The molecular structure of the surfactant is confirmed by 1H NMR. Nonionic surfactant is then being analyzed by measuring the interfacial tension (IFT) of oil and water and compatibility. The results show that the optimum conditions to obtain the high conversion are achieved by reacting oleyl glycidyl ether and Sodium Sulfite-Bisulfite at an equivalent mole ratio of 1:2 and 21 hours’ reaction time. Oleyl Glycidyl Ether Sulfonate surfactant is able to decrease the IFT of oil and water to 10-2 dyne/cm in a brine salinity condition of 18000 ppm and oil 34,39 OAPI. This study also formulating surfactants OGES and OGEP so that the IFT was up to 10-3. The results are then used to design the synthesis of vegetable surfactant oil with various carbon chain lengths and functional groups as an EOR surfactant hydrophobic group.