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Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 315 (2008) 3843

Alkaline consumption mechanisms by crude oil: A comparison

of sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide
Jinglun Sun a , Lixin Sun a , Weidong Liu b , Xiangui Liu b , Xin Li a , Qiang Shen a,
a

Key Laboratory for Colloid and Interface Chemistry of Education Ministry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,
Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
b Institute of Porous Flow & Fluid Mechanics, China National Petroleum Corporation & Chinese Academy of Sciences, Langfang 065007, China
Received 23 February 2007; received in revised form 29 June 2007; accepted 10 July 2007
Available online 12 July 2007

Abstract
Alkaline agents have an appeal for enhanced oil recovery because of their low cost and favorable performance. In this paper, sodium carbonate
(Na2 CO3 ) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) are used as the alkaline chemicals, at the same Na2 O content, to investigate the oil/water interfacial
reactions between the Daqing crude oil and the alkaline solutions. Moreover, oleic acid or the mixture of ethyl acetate and phthalic acid diethyl ester
were added into the crude oil, respectively, to facilitate the direct observation of the interfacial reactions and to compare the functional effectiveness
of alkalis. The results showed that: Na2 CO3 reacted slowly and partly with the acid components in crude oil, while NaOH did it very fast and
completely. Interestingly, Na2 CO3 is better than NaOH in lowering the oil/water interfacial tension (IFT), due to its buffer effect. These help the
optimum formulation design of flooding alkali, which should also be of great importance for tertiary oil recovery.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Alkaline flooding; Crude oil; Acidic components; Interfacial reaction; Interfacial tensions; Enhanced oil recovery

1. Introduction
In oil recovery processes, large quantities of oil were trapped
in the water-flooded oil reservoirs due to capillary forces. Capillary forces have magnitude equal to the interfacial tension (IFT)
between the oil and the aqueous phase, which can be reduced by
the lowering of IFT values [1]. If surfactants were absorbed at
the oil/water interface, the water resistance could be reduced to
impulse the residual oil at a proper mobility ratio. Based on this
principle, several enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes [27],
such as the micellar, the alkaline, the polymer and the combination flooding, have been designed for the possible application
in tertiary oil recovery, the most simple and low-cost one being
the alkaline flooding.
In fact, the design of alkali-enhanced flooding systems has
been remaining quite complex, due to the many interactions
that can occur between not only the various constituents in the
chemical slug [810] but also with the reservoir itself [1113].

Corresponding author. Fax: +86 531 88564750.

E-mail address: qshen@sdu.edu.cn (Q. Shen).

0927-7757/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2007.07.009

Injected alkaline is likely to be useless in oil displacement due

to alkaline consumption. Generally, alkaline consumption is due
to the reactions of alkalineoil, alkalinereservoir water, and
alkalinereservoir rock. Alkalineoil reaction is necessary and
useful, because that alkaline reacts with oil to form a low or
ultralow IFT favorable for oil displacement.
It is generally accepted that the oilalkaline reaction benefits from the naturally occurring acid components in crude
oil [14,15]. The concentrations and the structures of organic
acids could be used to modulate the acidic number of oil phases
[16]. In fact, both organic acids and esters are often present in
crude oils. Aside from the acidic fractions, esters could serve
both as surfactants and as the alkali-consumed reagents due
to the saponification. And, the saponifying products of esters
are amphiphilic, the resulting soaps could act as surface-active
reagents, while the alcohols could be used as cosurfactants.
Thus, when the crude oil containing such an organic acid, and/or
ester, is brought in contact with an alkaline solution, the more
hydrophilic counterparts are produced by the interfacial reaction
between crude oil and the alkaline reagents in the aqueous phase.
Then, these in situ generated compounds could be absorbed
therein, or be migrated away from the oil/water interface after

J. Sun et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 315 (2008) 3843

their initial formation. These determined the variation of IFT

value as the oil/water interface aged. Though many papers focus
on the study of interfacial tensions between crude oils and displacing systems, the different reaction mechanism between the
caustic and the latent alkalis, as well as the influence of the ester
contained in crude oil, has seldom been conducted.
In this paper, oleic acid or the mixture of ethyl acetate and
phthalic acid diethyl ester were added into the crude oil, respectively, to investigate the interfacial reactions between crude oil
and alkaline solutions and to compare the different EOR effectiveness of Na2 CO3 and NaOH. This simulates more or less
the alkaline flooding process, facilitating the investigation of
alkaline flooding mechanism and being of great importance for
tertiary oil recovery.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials and solution preparation
The crude oil, having an acid number of 0.1 mg KOH/g sample, a viscosity of 10.5 mPa S at 45 C, was offered from Daqing
oil field in China. The oil phase employed in the present study
was the model oil, namely, the mixture (1:1, v/v) of the degassed
crude oil and the commercial kerosene (Sinopec Company). This
partly simulates the basic parameters of the underground oil
in Daqing oil field. Oleic acid, ethyl acetate and phthalic acid
diethyl ester were of reagent grade and were used without further
purification. Oleic acid, or, the mixed esters, was added into the
oil phase at 0.1 mol/L concentration to enlarge the concentration of active components and to facilitate the observation and
measurement of interfacial reactions.
Sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide were of analytical grade, and double-distilled water was used to prepare the
aqueous solutions of Na2 CO3 (1.5 103 mol/L) and NaOH
(3.0 103 mol/L). An acidobasic indicator, phenolphthalein
(A.P.), was added to the aqueous phases for the direct observation
of the interfacial reactions [17].
2.2. Extraction, methylation and characterization of acidic
components
Two hundred and fifty grams of Daqing crude oil was dissolved in 500 mL of n-hexane and the solution extracted three
times with 500 mL portions of 1 wt% KOH in 70 wt% ethanol.
The combined alkaline solution was extracted with hexane to
remove trace of dissolved or admixed oil, followed by concentrating then acidifying by HCl to pH 3. Finally, the acidic
mixtures were extracted by ether, dried with anhydrous sodium
sulfate [18].
The acidic extracts were methylated by using the
methanol/chloroacetic acid method at 65 C. Then, the esterified mixtures were re-dissolved in methanol and analyzed by gas
chromatography with a mass sensitive detector (GCMS, SHIMADZU QP-2010). GCMS measurements were conducted in
a fused silica column (30 m 0.25 mm), operating at 70 eV and
being held at 100 C for 10 min, then 5 C/min to 300 C.

39

2.3. Measurements of interfacial reaction

Firstly, 5 mL alkaline solution with the addition of phenolphthalein was transferred into a test tube, following the
transformation of 5 mL model oil. Secondly, the test tube
was sealed and placed in a thermostat at the assay temperature. The indicator in the aqueous phase changes color from
red (pH > 10.0) to colorless (pH < 8.0), which corresponds to
the decrease of alkaline concentration. Finally, the interfacial
reaction between the alkaline solution and model oil was qualitatively observed by the color change and by the measurement
of pH value of the aqueous phase. The pH value of the reactive solution was measured by a combination electrodes (Mettler
Toledo HA405-K2/120, 0.01 pH) which was calibrated before
each experiment by the two standard buffer solutions of tartrate
(25 C, pH 3.56) and borate (25 C, pH 9.18).
Measurement of interfacial tension was performed by using
the American Texas-500C spinning drop interfacial tension
apparatus. The samples were rotated at 5000 rpm in all case.
Samples were assumed to be in equilibrium state when measured
values of IFT remained unchanged for half an hour. All experiments were performed at 45.0 0.1 C, which is consistent with
the temperature of oil well in Daqing oil field in China.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Structural analysis of acidic fractions
The species and the properties of the polar mixtures contained in different crude oils are not the same, indicating that it
is difficult to conclude a universal displacing mechanism of alkaline flooding. In order to investigate the influence of alkali on
the oil/water interfacial reactions, it is necessary, for the first
instance, to extract the acidic fractions contained in Daqing
crude oil. After extraction and methylation, 13 methyl esters
of organic acids were identified and shown in Table 1. Despite
of the hydrolysis of organic esters during the extraction process
and the ester exchange during the methylation process, these
methyl esters probably correspond to the phthalate acid, hexanedioic acid, hexadecanoic acid, and etc. Although the acidic
number of Daqing crude oil is only 0.1 mg KOH/g sample,
displacing tests in laboratory and in field proved the validity of
alkaline flooding. By considering the relative content of methyl
esters (Table 1) and the acidic number of crude oil, oleic acid
or the mixture of ethyl acetate and phthalic acid diethyl ester
were selected as the polar additives, respectively, to conduct the
influence of different polar mixtures on alkaline consumption.
In China, sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide are the
main alkaline compounds used in flooding systems. Core-flood
tests in laboratory proved that the alkali/surfactant/polymer
(ASP) flooding systems containing Na2 CO3 or NaOH had
almost the same oil-scrubbing efficiency. It seems that Na2 CO3
should be the first choice due to the NaOH breakage of stratum [12,13]. However, field applications of the both flooding
processes have usually been disappointing. Furthermore, the
field performance in Daqing oil field proved that the sweep efficiency of the NaOH-containing ASP systems was higher than

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J. Sun et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 315 (2008) 3843

Table 1
GCMS analysis of the acidic extracts after methylation
Contenta

Methyl esters

Molecular formula

Butanedioic acid, dimethyl

ester
Pentanedioic acid, dimethyl
ester
Hexanedioic acid, dimethyl
ester
Dimethyl phthalate
Dimethyl isophthalate
(7,7-Dimethyl-1-oxo2,3,4,5,6,7-hexahydro-1Hinden-2-yl)-acetic acid,
methyl ester
1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic
acid, ethyl methyl ester
Tridecanoic acid, methyl ester
Tetradecanoic acid,
12-methyl-, methyl ester
13-Tetradecan-1-ol acetate
Hexadecanoic acid, methyl
ester
Heptacosanoic acid, methyl
ester
9-Octadecenoic acid(Z)-,
methyl ester

C6 H10 O4

1.8803

C7 H12 O4

2.5397

C8 H14 O4

5.0916

C10 H10 O4
C10 H10 O4
C14 H20 O3

36.4957
44.5177
0.8303

C11 H12 O4

0.3053

C14 H28 O2
C16 H32 O2

0.2076
1.2210

C16 H30 O2
C17 H34 O2

0.3541
4.2735

C28 H56 O2

1.5140

C19 H36 O2

0.7692

The weight fraction of each compound in 100 g methylated mixtures.

that of the Na2 CO3 -containing systems. In order to facilitate

the design of effective ASP systems, more fundamental and
applied research should be carried out to compare the functional effectiveness of Na2 CO3 and NaOH. Herein, Na2 CO3 and
NaOH were used at same Na2 O content to compare the oil/water
interfacial reactions between Daqing crude oil and the alkaline
solutions.
3.2. Effect of sodium carbonate
Without the addition of active fractions, the dynamic interfacial tension of Daqing model oil against Na2 CO3 solution
was shown in Fig. 1A. The IFT value at the interfacial aging
time of 1 s was 1.2 mN/m, then, it increased gradually to the
maximum of 7.0 mN/m at the aging time of 20 min. The maximum IFT stood still for nearly 50 min, and then it decreased
slightly to a steady-state value of 6.2 mN/m. Generally, the IFT
value is a function of the interfacial ionized acid concentration which depends upon its rates of producing and desorption
from the interface. During the process of IFT measurement,
the interfacial reaction between the organic acids in the suspended oil drop and Na2 CO3 in the bulk phase was so fast
that the minimum value of IFT reached at the beginning; then,
the desorption of the resulting surface-active species from the
oil/water interface gradually caused the increase of IFT value
[15,19]. Nevertheless, the IFT value for the reference system of
Daqing crude oil and water was measured to be 55.0 mN/m.
This indicate that, even though the acidic number of Daqing
crude oil is as low as 0.1 mg KOH/g oil, the concentration of the
polar mixtures in the model oil was sufficiently high to consume
Na2 CO3 .

Fig. 1. Dynamic interfacial tension between the aqueous phase of

1.5 103 mol/L Na2 CO3 solution and the different oil phases of model oil
(A), 0.1 mol/L oleic acid in model oil (B), and 0.1 mol/L the mixed ester in
model oil (C), respectively.

When oleic acid was added into the model oil, the dynamic
IFT of acidified oil against Na2 CO3 solution was shown in
Fig. 1B. In Fig. 1B, the IFT value at the interfacial age of 1 s
was measured to be 0.2 mN/m. With the extended contact time,
the IFT value changed periodically, which would be shown and
discussed later. When the mixture of ethyl acetate and phthalic
acid diethyl ester was added to model oil, the oil/water interfacial tension reached 0.2 mN/m at first hand; interestingly, the
IFT did not change with aging time (Fig. 1C). The comparison
of Fig. 1B and C with Fig. 1A concluded that the addition of
oleic acid or mixed esters in the model oil caused the initial IFT
value to decrease.
After the interfacial reaction of crude oil with Na2 CO3 solution the resulting counterparts of the selected organic acids
should be water-soluble, indicating the decrease for the pH
value of aqueous phase. Basing on this, the acidobasic indicator of phenolphthalein was added to the aqueous Na2 CO3
solution for the direct observation of the interfacial reactions,
shown in Fig. 2. All of test-tubes in panel A or B were the
pictures of one model oilNa2 CO3 system taken at different
aging times. It should be pointed out that the chromatic aberration was contributed to the change of the indoor illumination.
The neutralizing reaction of oleic acid with Na2 CO3 might be
very slow and incomplete, because the color of Na2 CO3 solution
weakened gradually. And, this caused the aqueous pH value to
change from 11.65 (t 0 h) to 10.38 (t 227 h). It could also
be imaged that the in situ generated surface-active species (i.e.,
sodium oleate) played an important role in lowering the IFT
value (Fig. 1B) and in emulsifying at the oil/water interface
(Fig. 2A).
The addition of organic esters had no influence on the
color change of aqueous Na2 CO3 solution (Fig. 2B), implying that no interfacial saponification occurred. And, this was
certified by the nearly constant pH value of Na2 CO3 solution
during contact times from 0 to 265 h. It should be emphasized that ethyl acetate can dissolve up to 3 wt% water and
has a solubility of 8 wt% in water at room temperature. The
addition of the weak-polar mixtures of esters into the paraffin-

J. Sun et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 315 (2008) 3843

41

Fig. 3. (A) Dynamic interfacial tension of 1.5 103 mol/L Na2 CO3 solution
against the oil phase of 0.1 mol/L oleic acid in model oil; (B) pictures of an
oil-drop taken at the IFT measurement intervals of 0, 45, 105, 125, 155, and
175 min, respectively.
Fig. 2. Direct observation of the interfacial reactions between the aqueous phase
of 1.5 103 mol/L Na2 CO3 solution and oil phases of 0.1 mol/L oleic acid in
model oil (A) and of 0.1 mol/L the mixed ester in model oil (B), respectively. In
panel A or B, photographs of a reaction system were taken at different intervals,
and the actual times were marked on the tube top.

base oil (Fig. 2B) could lead to the increase in polarity of

organic phase and the decrease in polarity of aqueous phase,
resulting in the smaller oil/water phase-polarity difference than
before. So, it was the polarity difference between the two
phases that caused the oil/water interface tension to decrease
(Fig. 1C).
Generally, the emulsification of crude oil in displacing water
is one of the alkaline flooding mechanisms [10]. For the acidic oil
and Na2 CO3 system shown in Fig. 2A, interfacial reaction and
the consequent mass transfer of the generated surfactants across
the oil/water interface caused the interfacial sublayer to become
gradually opalescent, indicating the formation of O/W emulsion.
Although the test-tube of Fig. 2A was kept still during the experimental process, a substance wanted to move from one phase of
higher chemical potential to another of lower chemical potential after the disturbance of phase equilibrium by the oil/water
interfacial reaction of organic acids and Na2 CO3 . Basing on
the phase equilibrium rules, the consequent transformation of
ionized acids caused the polarity and the pH value of aqueous
phase to decrease. Then, the oil-soluble substances, especially
the weak-polar acids and esters, could be gradually transferred
into the aqueous solution, driven by the chemical potential of
each component. Finally, the solubilized surfactants and the salt
effect of carbonatebicarbonate buffer induced the transferred
oil-components to be emulsified in the sublayer phase of the
oil/water interface.
It can be imaged that the injection of emulsion into the
reservoir should improve the sweep efficiency of the Na2 CO3
flooding, due to the solubilization of residual oil in emulsion.
Furthermore, physical processes of the generated soaps such as
adsorption and desorption could be used to explain the seasonal
fluctuation of IFT shown in Fig. 3A. And, this was proved by
the periodical change of the aspect ratio of an oil-drop shape
during the IFT measurement (Fig. 3B).

3.3. Effect of sodium hydroxide

Fig. 4 showed the dynamic interfacial tension behaviors
as a function of the interfacial age of model oils against
NaOH solution. Without the polar additives, the IFT of model
oil against 3.0 103 mol/L NaOH solution fluctuated from
11.4 mN/m at first to a steady value of 13.0 at the aging time
of 60 min (Fig. 4A). The addition of oleic acid (0.1 mol/L) or
the mixed esters (0.1 mol/L) could cause the dynamic IFT to
decrease, which were shown in Fig. 4B and C, respectively.
In the presence of oleic acid, the oil/water IFT was stable at
0.1 mN/m during the first 25 min, then, it increased gradually to reach a plateau of 10.2 mN/m at the aging time of ca.
55 min (Fig. 4B). The addition of the mixed esters caused the
IFT between model oil and NaOH solution to become 1.0 mN/m;
then, the dynamic IFT increased immediately to reach a maximum value of 8.9 mN/m at 20 min, and then it decreased slightly
to reach a steady value of 7.6 mN/m at the interfacial age
of 34 min.

Fig. 4. Dynamic interfacial tension between the aqueous phase of

3.0 103 mol/L NaOH solution and the different oil phases of model oil (A),
0.1 mol/L oleic acid in model oil (B), and 0.1 mol/L the mixed ester in model
oil (C), respectively.

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J. Sun et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 315 (2008) 3843

Fig. 5. Direct observation of the interfacial tension between the aqueous phase
of 3.0 103 mol/L NaOH solution and the different oil phases of 0.1 mol/L
oleic acid in model oil (A), and of 0.1 mol/L the mixed ester in model oil (B),
respectively. In panel A or B, photographs of a reaction system were taken at
different aging intervals, and the actual times were marked on the tube top.

The interfacial reaction of carboxylic acid and NaOH went

ahead and completely resulted in the carboxylate and water
(Fig. 5A), while that of carboxylic acid and Na2 CO3 proceeded incompletely and produced sodium oleate and NaHCO3
(Fig. 2A). As it was described above, the salt effect of Na2 CO3
solution could be used to explain the interfacial emulsification
shown in Fig. 2A; however, it should not be so convincible to
explain the IFT functions versus measuring times, due to the
lower yield of surfactants for Na2 CO3 than that for NaOH.
Here, we would like to cite Hernainz Bermudez de Castros
results [21]: pH value had a tremendous influence on the surface tension of sodium oleate solution. At different surfactant
concentrations, surface tension could alter at the maximum
magnitude of ca. 30.0 mN/m, due to the variation of pH and
especially at pH 9. After the interfacial reaction of carboxylic
acid and alkali, the final pH values for the aqueous solutions of
Na2 CO3 and NaOH were 4.93 and 10.38, respectively. So, the
buffer effect of NaHCO3 Na2 CO3 could be used to explain that
Na2 CO3 was better than NaOH in lowering the oil/water IFT
(Figs. 1B and 4B).
4. Conclusion

Generally, caustic solution is relatively easy to react with

organic acids and/or esters contained in oil phases, shown in
Fig. 5. By observation, the addition of 0.1 mol/L oleic acid in
model oil caused the indicator to change color from carmine
to colorless at the aging time of ca. 8 h (Fig. 5A); while
the addition of the mixed esters caused the carmine phase of
NaOH solution to become colorless at 5 h (Fig. 5B). Consequently, at the aging time of 24 h the pH values of aqueous
phases changed to 4.93 (Fig. 5A) and 6.31 (Fig. 5B), respectively. It should be pointed out: when Na2 CO3 and NaOH
concentrations were reduced to their half values, respectively,
phenolphthalein could directly be used to observe the alkaline
consumption of the original model oil (data not shown). Overall,
these results concluded that the addition of NaOH could make
the aqueous phase to become colorless more quickly than that
of Na2 CO3 .
Actually, oleic acid is barely soluble in water, and the natural pH of the sodium oleate solution is 9.80. The change
of the pH value of NaOH solution from 13.96 to 4.93 indicated that, after the interfacial reaction of oleic acid with NaOH,
the excess acid molecules (RCOOH) were transferred into the
aqueous phase, inducing the transformation of basicity to acidity (Fig. 5A). According to Pughs opinion [20], the molecular
monomer RCOOH and the in situ generated monomer RCOO
could react to form the acidic soap of (RCOO)2 H , the acidic
soap salt of (RCOO)2 HNa, and the acidic dimer of (RCOOH)2 .
These species solubilizing in water, as well as the complete
consumption of alkali, dominated the color change of alkaline
solution. And, this probably depressed the polarity difference
between the oil and the aqueous phases, and then decreased
the IFT values. Similarly, for the saponification of esters, the
co-instantaneous consumption of NaOH, and the interphase
transfer of hydrolysates and the corresponding soaps should also
account for the pH change of NaOH solution from 13.96 to 6.31
(Fig. 5B).

Aside from the preflushing remove of free hardness ions

from reservoir water by Na2 CO3 and the breakage of stratum by NaOH, the latent alkali of Na2 CO3 was better than
the caustic of NaOH to drop the oil/water IFT at the same
Na2 O content. Especially, the addition of oleic acid to crude
oil also proved that Na2 CO3 could cause the interfacial emulsification and the interfacial enrichment of the in situ generated
soaps. By the way, the acidobasic indicator of phenolphthalein
could successfully be employed to detect and monitor the consumption of alkaline agents by the active fractions of crude oil
(i.e., acids and esters). In summary, the laboratory evaluation of
Na2 CO3 and NaOH suggests the relatively high effectiveness
of latent alkali flooding for tertiary oil recovery in Daqing oil
field.
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