Polyacrylamide Grafted Xanthan: Microwave-Assisted Synthesis and Rheological Behavior for Polymer Flooding

Application of polymer-flooding systems in secondary and tertiary oil recovery represents a real challenge for oil industry. In this work, our main objective is to explore possibilities of making use of xanthan-g-polyacrylamide for polymer flooding in a particular Devonian oilfield of medium salinity. The graft polymer was synthesized by using microwave-assisted graft copolymerization reaction of acrylamide on xanthan. The synthesized copolymer with optimized grafting parameters has been characterized by Infrared Spectroscopy and Thermal Analysis (DSC). Rheological analysis by steady shear and oscillatory flow experiments have been subsequently performed for xanthan and grafted xanthan under reservoir conditions. In steady shear, as expected the grafted polymer solutions flow as shear-thinning materials and apparent viscosity showed good fits with Cross's model. The viscosity losses due to salinity or temperature are more controlled for the grafted xanthan compared to pristine xanthan. When the grafted polymer concentration is increased to 2000 ppm the losses were halved. In oscillatory shear, the copolymer solutions followed a global behavior of semi-dilute entangled systems; furthermore, all dynamic properties were influenced by the brine salinity. Compared to xanthan, the elastic properties of xanthan-g-polyacrylamide solutions have been significantly improved in saline media and the losses in elasticity of grafted polymer solutions are lower.