Application of Surfactant and Polymer and Their Mixture in Drag Reduction and EOR
Energy
Drag reduction technology in pipeline systems has been developed since 1970's. It has capabilities to assists pipeline and petroleum industries in mounting operational flexibility, resulting in an increase in revenue prospective. Drag reducers (DR) may include polymer, surfactant or/and combination of them. DR agents lower frictional and energy loss through lessening the pipeline turbulence. Such an important modification allows companies to deliberately decrease capital costs, enhance operational costs and consequently increase their pipeline capacity. Although systematic studies have been accomplished on the drag reduction (DR) behaviour of polymers and surfactants separately, synergistic effects of combined polymers and surfactants still remain challenging. Interactions of various types of surfactants and polymers have been studied by employing an extensive experimental work in order to capture the effects of mixtures on drag reduction in pipeline flow under wide ranges of flow conditions and pipeline characterizations.
Our expert teams in Advanced CERT Canada are developing experimental and modeling methods to simulate behaviour of polymer/surfactant mixture in terms of surface tension, viscosity, wettability alteration and adsorption that can be applied to oil industry, particularly in surfactant flooding EOR technology.
