SDS-Aluminum Oxide Nanofluid for Enhanced Oil Recovery: IFT, Adsorption, and Oil Displacement Efficiency

Surfactant flooding is one of the most promising chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) methods to produce residual oil in reservoirs. Recently, nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted extensive attention because of their significant characteristics and capabilities to improve oil recovery. The aim of this study is to scrutinize the synergistic effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as an anionic surfactant and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) on the efficiency of surfactant flooding. Extensive series of interfacial tension and surfactant adsorption measurements were conducted at different concentrations of SDS and Al₂O₃ NPs. Furthermore, different surfactant adsorption isotherm models were fitted to the experimental data, and constants for each model were calculated. Additionally, oil displacement tests were performed at 25 °C and atmospheric pressure to indicate the suitability of SDS-Al₂O₃ for CEOR. Analysis of this study shows that the interfacial tension (IFT) reduction between aqueous phase and crude oil is enhanced considerably by 76%, and the adsorption density of SDS onto sandstone rock is decreased remarkably from 1.76 to 0.49 mg/g in the presence of these NPs. Although the effectiveness of NPs gradually increases with the increase of their concentration, there is an optimal value of Al₂O₃ NP concentration. Moreover, oil recovery was increased from 48.96 to 64.14% by adding 0.3 wt % NPs to the surfactant solution, which demonstrates the competency of SDS-Al₂O₃ nanofluids for CEOR.