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Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Review

M. F. Nazara; S. S. Shaha; M. A. Khosaa
a
Chemistry Department, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Online publication date: 11 May 2011

To cite this Article Nazar, M. F. , Shah, S. S. and Khosa, M. A.(2011) 'Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery: A
Review', Petroleum Science and Technology, 29: 13, 1353 — 1365
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 Petroleum Science and Technology, 29:1353–1365, 2011
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1091-6466 print/1532-2459 online
DOI: 10.1080/10916460903502514

Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery:

A Review

M. F. NAZAR,1 S. S. SHAH,1 AND M. A. KHOSA1

1
Chemistry Department, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract Microemulsions have recently made advances in enhanced oil recovery

processes in which chemicals, especially surfactants, are used to recover the oil
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from natural oil reservoirs. This technique relies on the knowledge of interfacial
properties among oil, water, and solid rock reservoirs in the occasional presence
of natural gas under extreme conditions. Surfactant-based chemical systems have
been reported in many academic studies and their technological implementation is a
potential candidate in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) activities. For instance, it was
determined that a mobilized buffer (polymer) with viscosity either equal to or greater
than the mobilized oil enhanced the recovery efficiency considerably. However, EOR
based on chemicals like alkaline–surfactant–polymer (ASP) is a complex technology
requiring a high level of expertise for its industrial implementation. The surfactant–
polymer interaction is a rapidly growing research area for efficient oil recovery by
improving slug integrity, adsorption, and mobility control. This review article evaluates
the injecting fluid system to highlight some recent advances in the use of chemicals in
EOR, especially with microemulsions. It further reveals the current status and future
outlook for EOR technology in oil fields and describes the opportunities for strategic
utilities and load growth in petroleum industry.

Keywords alkaline–surfactant–polymer, enhanced oil recovery, interfacial proper-

ties, load growth, microemulsions, mobility control

Introduction
Exploration of oil reservoirs and their exploitation is a rigorous activity in petroleum
industry. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is carried out by applying some extrinsic energy on
the pool; for instance, pressuring, cycling, and injecting some substance into the pool are
the artificial means that are used to extract oil from oil reservoirs. These artificial means
used for primary oil recovery laid the foundation for secondary or tertiary oil recovery
programs. Primary oil recovery programs do not support the idea of using mechanical,
chemical, thermal, or explosive materials for lifting up fluids from the well or stimulating
the nearby fluid reservoir (Richmond and Montana, 2007). This is done by secondary
or tertiary oil recovery programs. EOR projects are accomplished by using miscible or
immiscible mixtures, chemical or thermal processes, and sometimes biological operations
in order to displace the oil underneath the earth. The intrinsic or natural capacity of oil
fields for producing oil is, however, promoted via primary recovery techniques. But

Address correspondence to Muhammad Arshad Khosa, Chemistry Department, Quaid-i-Azam

University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. E-mail: khosa73pk@yahoo.com

1353
 1354 M. F. Nazar et al.

physical constraints such as reduced well pressure and extensive oil trapping lessen oil
production and eventually it ceases at one stage. In fact, original balance perturbs during
the recovery process; it changes the composition of crude oil, affecting the reservoir
wettability (Yangming et al., 2003). At this point, economical aspects are observed and
fulfilled by implementing secondary and tertiary EOR methods, especially in the locations
of heavy or mature oilfields (Babadagli, 2007). EOR has the potential to increase oil
yield extracted from mature fields significantly. If there were a mere 1% increase in oil
recovery from the existing reservoirs in the world, it would help deliver 20–30 barrels
of additional oil. Experts estimate that chemical EOR methods alone can potentially
recover 750 barrels of oil. Chilingar and Yen (1983) thoroughly investigated several
reservoir cores (i.e., limestone, dolomitic limestone, calcitic dolomite, and dolomite)
and concluded that 15% of them were strongly oil wet, 65% were just oil wet, 12% had
moderate oil wettability, and 8% of cores were water wet. Bearing in mind that a majority
of petroleum reserves currently detected are accommodated in carbonate matrices (Austad
and Standnes, 2003), modification in wettability of these reservoirs is an important issue
when further oil recovery is desired.
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EOR methods are devised with the purpose of overcoming the capillary forces
responsible for retention of a high amount of the residual oil in underground reser-
voirs. These capillary forces are normally quantified by the Young-Laplace equations in
interfacial sciences (Schramm et al., 2003). In fact, capillary pressure (Pc ) is a rather
useful parameter when classifying a rock sample as an either oil or water wet. Equation
(1) gives the value of Pc in terms of the local interfacial tension, , and the curvature of
the interface (C ), which is determined by the pore radius (R), and the contact angle ().

2 cos 
Pc D
C D (1)
R

Furthermore, surface wettability is intrinsically related to contact angle, particularly in oil

reservoirs where water, oil, and gas phases are often in contact. The spreading coefficient
 SLG can be defined (Eq. (2)) in terms of the interfacial tensions developed between
each pair of contacting phases: solid–gas ( SG ), solid–liquid ( SL), and liquid–gas ( LG )
interfaces. It is used to describe the wetting properties of a rock matrix.

 SLG D SG SL LG (2)

The spreading coefficient ( SG ) is rather difficult to measure directly. However, it can

be measured directly (Eq. (3)) when equilibrium is established at the contact point of all
three phases (i.e., a finite contact angle  between the two fluids and the rock).

SG D SL C LG cos  (3)

The equilibrium pressure thus established can be altered by injecting appropriate fluids
during the prospecting of oil wells. The composition of such fluids depends on the mix-
tures of liquids and solids taken in various ratios according to their specific application.
After choosing an appropriate and effective fluid, parameters such as pressure, tempera-
ture, chemical factors, economical factors, and contamination levels are determined. For
example, it was determined that if the viscosity of injected fluid is lower than that of the
fluid to be displaced under rock, the injected mixture of fluids flows more swiftly than
the original fluid across the porous medium while finding preferred paths.
 Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery 1355

Phases of Oil Production

The oil recovery process consists of three recovery phases: primary, secondary, and
tertiary recovery (Gurgel et al., 2008). In the primary oil recovery phase, oil is driven out
of the well bore by the natural pressure of the reservoir and gravity. The natural movement
of the oil is enhanced with artificial lift techniques such as pumps. The oil extraction
range is from 10 to 20% of the oil available in the field. The secondary recovery phase
employs water, known as the waterflooding technique, to recover oil from the field. In
this technique, the injected water or steam displaces the oil and sends it to the wellbore.
An additional 10–30% recovery of oil from the available oil field is made possible by the
secondary recovery phase. The tertiary oil recovery or enhanced oil recovery phase utilizes
several additional methods that are sometimes expensive and unpredictable. Despite this,
their proper application can enhance oil recovery up to 30–60% of a total oil field.
In a typical oil field, conventional production methods extract, on average, about
one third of the total available oil. The rest of the oil remains under the earth and is
difficult to extract because of the high demand of cost and technology. Drilling an oil
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well is not like tapping into a vast underground lake. Instead, oil is found within a variety
of complex geological rock structures. As oil reserves decline, it becomes increasingly
difficult to extract the remaining oil and bring it to the surface.

EOR Techniques
Enhanced oil recovery, also known as tertiary oil recovery, is a set of methods that
involves various injecting materials to extract oil from its reservoirs. EOR is a rapidly
growing technique in the petroleum industry as far as its efficiency in oil growth is
concerned. Many oil exploration and drilling companies are using EOR techniques to
maximize the potential of both old and new oil fields. Figure 1 shows selective EOR
methods normally used in petroleum exploitation activities.
Secondary methods cause perturbation of the unproductive reservoir via some phys-
ical modification (i.e., water, gas, or steam flooding) that results in low final oil recovery.
In particular, methods involving miscible gas and thermal energy can be useful to change

Figure 1. Flow sheet of enhanced oil recovery methods.

 1356 M. F. Nazar et al.

the viscosity and thereby mobility of oil trapped in rocks. This is due to an interfacial
effect mutually caused by capillary and viscous forces. As a result, more oil can be
driven out of the pores. Thermal recovery method employs heat to improve oil flow
rates (Standing, 2007) and steam is injected into the reservoir to lower the viscosity of
heavy viscous oil, which allows the oil to flow easily through pores and thereafter it is
extracted conveniently. Dolberry Oil and Gas Inc. estimated that 52% steam, 31% CO2 ,
and 17% N2 should be employed in EOR techniques. The most popular and growing
EOR technique is gas injection (Richmond and Montana, 2007; Cast, 2009), which is
a consistently successful technique for increasing oil production in various types of oil
reservoirs. The ultimate goal of gas injection is to restore reservoir pressure, increase oil
production, and lower operating costs. Nevertheless, the high cost of gas equipment and
their accessories is prohibitive, and small, independent oil companies cannot execute gas
injection EOR.
A chemical EOR technique uses novel surfactant molecules and polymers as injection
materials. This surfactant-based EOR could provide a solution to the global energy crisis
by significantly increasing oil recovery rates (Pope, 2007). In general, the positive effect
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of lowered interfacial tension (IFT) on the ultimate recovery is due to the addition of
surfactant (i.e., heavy oil), whereas adding surfactant (i.e., light oil) shows a negative
effect of lowered IFT on the recovery rate. Each reservoir has different characteristics
in terms of temperature, permeability, porosity, crude oil type, and water composition;
therefore, the surfactant has to be matched closely to the specific conditions in order to
achieve the desired chemical interaction. Once mobilized, the oil is able to flow out of the
reservoir, analogous to soil shifting from clothing and its removal along with wastewater
by conventional laundry detergents.
Chemical flooding involves the injection of a surfactant solution that causes the oil-
aqueous interfacial tension to drop from ca. 30 mN m 1 to zero by the order of 10 3 –
10 4 mN m 1 . This decrease in interfacial tension allows spontaneous emulsification
and displacement of the oil (Poettmann, 1983; Lake, 1989). A small chemical slug (i.e.,
5–40% pore volumes) is injected into the oil reservoir during the process. This slug is
displaced through the reservoir by a polymer bank, which in turn is displaced by drive
water.

Role of Capillary and Viscous Forces on Oil Recovery

Under ordinary flooding conditions (water or immiscible fluid), surface forces (capillary
forces) dominate the macroscopic displacement process and are responsible for trapping
a large portion of the oil within the pore structure of the reservoir rocks. Capillary
forces arise from the IFT between the oil and water phases, which resist applied viscous
forces externally and cause the injected water to bypass the resident oil. The microscopic
distribution of the trapped oil depends upon the hydrostatic equilibrium condition and
is a function of factors such as wettability of the rock and pressure in the fluid phases.
However, the viscous forces dominate the macroscopic displacement process if the flood
rate is made sufficiently high (Tabsr, 1969). The predominant mechanism to recover this
oil is by lowering the IFT through the addition of suitable chemicals (surfactants). Lower
interfacial forces recover additional oil by reducing these capillary forces. This trapping
of the resident oil can be expressed as a competition between viscous forces mobilizing
the oil and capillary forces trapping the oil.
In order to determine whether viscous or capillary forces are dominating the displace-
ment process, it is convenient to consider the dependence of the displacement efficiency
 Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery 1357

on a suitable dimensionless parameter known as capillary number (Nca ), defined in Eq. (4)
 w Uw
Nca D (4)
' ow
where w and Uw are the aqueous-phase viscosity and flow rate per unit cross-sectional
area, ow is the interfacial tension between oil and water, and ' is the porosity of the
reservoir rock structure (Foster, 1973). Physically, the capillary number represents the
ratio of viscous to capillary forces. The capillary number for an ordinary waterflooding
process is in the order of 106 (Foster, 1973).

Evaluation of the Chemical Methods in EOR Activities

As far as surface properties are concerned, oil extraction activities are greatly opti-
mized by EOR methods that employ some applicable chemical technique, especially
after secondary methods have failed to improve reservoir productivity. Some of these
techniques are cited in Figure 1, with particular emphasis on alkaline–surfactant–polymer
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(ASP) methods. Lowering of the water–oil IFT is the main driving force that enables
the use of such methods. Changes in fluid viscosities upon addition of chemicals like
polymer mixtures are observed and present some advantages. In conventional oil recovery
activities via waterflooding, low yields are normally observed. This is because of high
oil viscosity and development of strong IFTs when water is injected, in addition to
geological aspects involved in the oil extraction process. The phase behavior of a brine–
oil–surfactant formulation is one of the key factors determining enhanced oil recovery by
surfactant flooding. Therefore, operations based on either surfactants or polymers or their
combination, adsorption phenomena can be potentially advantageous mainly because of
the interesting physicochemical properties of micellar solutions, emulsions, fracturing
fluids, and particularly microemulsions.
Surfactant and polymer flooding has become an effective and competitive process
to improve oil recovery under the current circumstances of high oil prices. Thus, oil
companies are considering the process more seriously to rejuvenate their mature fields
(Chang et al., 2006). The special ability of surfactant molecules to adsorb onto surfaces
and modify their properties, and their further interaction with polymers and other chemical
species, requires assessing many physical parameters. The heterogeneous geological
nature of the oil reservoir must always be considered when selecting a suitable chemical
system in oil recovery. Different surfactant or polymer molecules or the appropriate
combination of two can serve this purpose to recover maximum oil yield. Compatibility
among the different tested species in terms of chain length, hydrophilic-lipophilic balance
(HLB), and chemical nature, for example, is one aspect to devise a chemical recovery
system (Hankins and Harwell, 1997; Shiao et al., 1998; Austad and Standnes, 2003).
Furthermore, very extreme conditions established by varying pH, temperature, pressure,
and composition (salt and inorganic compounds) are encountered in the reservoirs; thus,
novel surfactants in EOR activities must support such conditions and interact favorably
with other chemicals.
Biodegradability during the oil recovery process is also desirable, as in alkylpolyglu-
cosides and pyrolidones (Iglauer et al., 2004; Somasundaran and Zhang, 2006). Scattering
techniques, surface tension measurements, and particularly calorimetric experiments can
be successfully carried out, providing valuable properties about the interaction between
surfactants and polymers when mixed together under specific conditions in EOR tech-
niques (Loh et al., 2004). Reports by Loh and coworkers provide further explanation of
 1358 M. F. Nazar et al.

such techniques and analyses of some experimental results with chemicals that can have
potential applications in EOR (L. H. M. da Silva and Loh, 2000; R. C. da Silva et al.,
2002, 2004; Lof et al., 2007; Niemiec and Loh, 2008).

Enhanced Oil Recovery by Means of Microemulsions

Microemulsions are also potential candidates in enhanced oil recovery, especially due
to the ultra-low interfacial tension values attained between the contacting oil and water
microphases that compose them. Microemulsion flooding can be applied over a wide
range of reservoir conditions (Poettman, 1974). The use of microemulsions for oil
recovery is not a recent development in petroleum technology. In 1959, Holm and
Bernard filed for a patent in which surfactant dissolved in low-viscosity hydrocarbon
solvent was proposed. Another patent was filed by Gogarty and Olson in 1962 that
described the use of microemulsions in a new miscible-type recovery process known as
Maraflood® . Similarly, the first microemulsion-assisted EOR injection was tried in 1963
by Marathon Oil Company. In the late 1960s, more patents were issued to Jones, Cooke,
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and Holm involving microemulsions for improved oil recovery. Gogarty (1976) reviewed
the status and current appraisal of the microemulsion flooding processes. Later, in the
early 1970s, Healy and Reed (1974; Healy et al., 1976) reported on some fundamentals
of microemulsion flooding, especially viscosity, interfacial tension, and salinity, relating
the results of phase behavior of self-assembled systems to the Winsor’s concepts (Dantas
Neto et al., 2008).
For a given chemical system, any of these phase behaviors will generally be observed
when salt or alcohol compositions are varied. The effect of pressure and temperature on
the phase behavior of such systems has a similar effect (Kahlweit et al., 1988; Kim and
O’Connell, 1988; Sassen et al., 1989a,b, 1991; Andersen et al., 1999). Hence, precise
phase knowledge and its modeling are essential for engineering purposes. Nevertheless,
this is a difficult task because the number and nature of the equilibrium phases are
very sensitive to the overall composition, temperature, and pressure. Rossen et al. (1982)
and Kilpatrick et al. (1985) have shown that this complex behavior could be modeled
as conventional liquid–liquid equilibrium by using a simple expression of the excess
Gibbs energy derived from the Flory theory. But these authors did not compare their
simulations with experimental data. Negahban et al. (1988) quantitatively modeled the
phase equilibrium of some simple ternary systems exhibiting a phase behavior of the
same type using the universal quasichemical (UNIQUAC) activity coefficient model.
Garcia-Sanchez et al. (2001) provided a thermodynamic analytical representation of
the phase diagram of microemulsion systems similar to those used in enhanced oil
recovery. The methods for the estimation of excess Gibbs energy model interaction
parameters were successfully assessed for the representation of experimental multiphase
liquid equilibrium data of an oil–brine–surfactant–alcohol model system. In addition, for
effective representation of the phase diagram of this system, an empirical expression was
introduced in the selected excess Gibbs energy model to account for the specific role of
the surfactant in these complex systems. The British Petroleum (BP) Oil Company devised
a method of co-injection of a low-concentration mixture of surfactant and biopolymer
affected, called low-tension polymer flood (LTPF). Austad et al. (1994a,b) discussed the
physicochemical aspects involved in this method, particularly the interactions existing
within specific polymer–surfactant and microemulsion systems applied in EOR.
Austad and coworkers (Austad and Taugbol, 1995a,b; Austad and Strand, 1996;
Austad et al. 1996, 1997, 1998; Austad and Standnes, 2003) studied chemical flooding
 Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery 1359

of oil reservoirs, with detailed reports on the positive and negative effects of chemicals
in oil recovery. In these reports, Austad and coworkers compared cationic, anionic, and
nonionic surfactants, showing that cationic surfactants were more efficient. Reports also
highlighted the important role of spontaneous imbibition whereby capillary forces draw
a wetting fluid into a porous medium in EOR surfactant–polymer mixtures. This is
contrary to forced imbibition phenomena, which occur mainly due to viscous displace-
ment (Babadagli, 2006). The occurrence of imbibition via spontaneous mechanisms is
especially interesting in fractured reservoirs. With better reservoir characterization and
properly designed chemicals, some pilot tests have been reported successful technically,
with 50% oil recovery at initial flooding and thereafter recovering two thirds of the
residual oil (Chapotin et al., 1986; Reppert et al., 1990). Further information about both
oil recovery from a reservoir by chemical flooding and environmental soil remediation
can be found in Schramm (2000).
In microemulsion techniques, the oil reservoir is flooded with water containing a
small percentage of surfactant and other additives. This solution reacts with natural acids
in the trapped oil, making a microemulsion similar to soap lather. The surfactant plays
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a key role in forming the exact type of microemulsion that breaks down the interfacial
tension of target oil (Robert Moene, Shell Global Solutions). This is critical to both
mobilize oil and enable it to escape from the rock. Generally speaking, wherever a
waterflood has been successful, microemulsion flooding will be applicable; while, in
many cases where water flooding has failed owing to its poor mobility relationships,
microemulsion flooding can still be successful mainly due to required mobility control.
Microemulsions are stable emulsions of hydrocarbons and water in the presence
of either surfactants or cosurfactants. They are characterized by spontaneous formation,
ultra-low interfacial tension, and thermodynamic stability. The widespread interest in
microemulsions and their usage in industrial applications is based mainly on their high
solubilization capacity for both hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds, large interfacial
areas, and ultra-low interfacial tensions when they coexist with excess aqueous as well as
oil phases. The properties of microemulsions have extensively been reviewed elsewhere
(Robb, 1977; Mittal and Lindman-Plenum, 1984; Overbeek et al., 1984; Shah, 1985;
Robinson, 1986; Friberg and Bothorel, 1987; Wasan et al., 1988). The ultra-low interfacial
tension property exclusively achieved in microemulsion systems has many applications
in oil recovery and other extraction processes (i.e., soil decontamination and detergency).
Microemulsion, for instance, formulated by alkali-surfactant–polymer, is injected into
reservoirs in EOR processes and lowers the IFT to mobilize the residual oil left trapped
in the reservoirs after waterflooding.
Microemulsions are prepared from a mixture of oil, water, or brine and a surfactant
(an amphiphilic molecule). In several cases, the addition of a cosurfactant (alcohol) is
required to ensure the stability of the microemulsion. For a given overall composition, an
oil-in-water (O/W) microemulsion in equilibrium with the oil excess phase (Winsor I),
water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion in equilibrium with the water excess phase (Winsor
II), and a microemulsion in equilibrium with both water and oil excess phases (Winsor
III) are prepared. Middle-phase microemulsions are, nevertheless, often favorable for a
surfactant flooding processes (Hirasaki et al., 1983) wherein even a microscopic amount
up to a few moles remains effective for EOR. Hence, it is fundamental to maintain
the middle microemulsion phase as long as possible during the process of surfactant
flooding. The optimum surfactant formulation for a microemulsion system is dependent
on many variables such as pH, salinity, temperature, etc. Some of the components in a
typical formulation are listed in Schramm (2000). Common surfactants used in EOR are
 1360 M. F. Nazar et al.

petroleum sulfonates and ethoxylated alcohol sulfates (Ling et al., 1987; Schramm, 1992;
Schramm et al., 2003).
Tertiary oil recovery by means of microemulsions has been the main focus due to
the ability to dissolve oil and water simultaneously in addition to attainment of very low
interfacial tension of the system. Therefore, the design and analysis of chemical flooding
processes for EOR depend on calculations of phase equilibria for these systems that
are composed of water or brine, oil, surfactant, and cosurfactant (usually an alcohol).
Consequently, understanding the phase behavior of these systems is of fundamental
importance to the development of any surfactant-based chemical flooding process.
Microemulsion flooding is a miscible-type displacement process that decreases cap-
illary forces on oil droplets in the reservoir and thus improves oil recovery. A microemul-
sion slug is injected into the reservoir, followed by a polymer solution and water injection
for mobility control (Figure 2). Oil and water are displaced ahead of the microemulsion
slug, resulting in a stabilized oil–water bank. The displacement mechanism is the same
under secondary and tertiary recovery conditions. In the secondary case, water is a
primary produced fluid until the oil bank reaches the well.
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Microemulsions are optically transparent isotropic oil–water spontaneously formed

by appropriate combination of emulsifiers. Most are composed of hydrocarbons, surfac-
tants, water, and other organic liquids (alcohols) and they are generally miscible with the
reservoir oil and water. Microemulsions employed in EOR may be either oil external (also
called soluble oil) or water external; mostly, they contain crude oil from the reservoir
in which they are injected. The design of a microemulsion for a specific reservoir is
basically a trial-and-error procedure; that is, the formulation of the microemulsion slug for
a particular reservoir depends upon the reservoir condition after the secondary recovery
process and the properties of the microemulsion slug itself.
Mobility control is also important for the success of the process. The mobility of
the microemulsion is matched to the stabilized water–oil bank by controlling the mi-
croemulsion viscosity. The mobility buffer (polymer) incorporated by the microemulsion
slug prevents rapid slug deterioration from the rear side and thus minimizes the slug
size up to the level required for efficient oil displacement. Water external emulsions and
aqueous solutions of high-molecular-weight polymers have been used as mobility buffers.
Microemulsion flooding can be applied over a wide range of reservoir conditions. In
microemulsion flooding, the slug must be designed for specific reservoir conditions such

Figure 2. Schematic presentation of a microemulsion flooding process.

 Microemulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery 1361

as temperature, resident water salinity, and crude oil type. If the temperature is very high,
a fluid-handling problem may erupt in the field because of the increased vapor pressure
of the hydrocarbon in microemulsion.

Microemulsion Salinity Scan Tests

Surfactants are able to solubilize an increasing amount of oil and decreasing amount of
water as salinity is increased. The optimal salinity determined from phase behavior is the
salinity at which the microemulsion solubilizes equal amounts of oil and water. Salinity
scan tests are routinely used to screen the phase behavior of surfactant formulations before
conducting time-consuming core-flood tests (Levitt et al., 2006; Flaaten et al., 2008).
The minimum interfacial tension is correlated with the solubilization parameters at the
optimal salinity and eventually the presence of viscous, structured, or birefringent phases
and stable macroemulsions is easily monitored. When a salinity scan test is conducted
at low surfactant concentrations (i.e., 0.05%), the equilibrium phase behavior appears to
go from a lower-phase microemulsion to an upper-phase microemulsion over a narrow
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salinity range (Zhang and Somasundaran, 2006; Liu et al., 2008).

Microemulsion Slug Mobility

The first step in a mobility design procedure is effective mobility control of the mi-
croemulsion slug. The mobility of a microemulsion is a function of its composition, which
is controlled according to the specific application. The parameters that can be changed
to control the mobility of the microemulsion slug are the amount of water, electrolyte
concentration, type of hydrocarbon, amount of surfactant, and the use of cosurfactants.
Care must be taken not to bring on a change in mobility control that adversely affects
the other properties of the microemulsion and consequently its ability to displace the oil.

Mobility of Buffer (Polymer) Slug

For efficient microemulsion flooding, mobility of the buffer (polymer) displacing the
microemulsion slug is one of the important factors in designing the process. The mo-
bility of the buffer solution must be either equal to or less than the mobility of the
microemulsion slug for a stable system (Gogarty et al., 1970). A higher mobility buffer
solution causes fingering of the polymer solution into the microemulsion slug. Water
thickened by the polymer serves as an effective mobility buffer solution. Many polymers
have been reported as effective mobility control agents (Trushenski et al., 1973), though
polyacrylamides are the only polymers that have been used as mobility control agents
on a large scale. Mobility control with polyacrylamides is achieved by reduction in
both viscosity and permeability (Gogarty, 1967). Both molecular weight and degree of
hydrolysis of the polymer are important characteristics in mobility design control solution
(Gogarty, 1967).

Economical Aspects of the Process

The cost of buffer solution mobility and microemulsion slug depends upon their respective
compositions. Microemulsion slug mobility can be reduced to virtually any value by
changing the composition of the microemulsion and normally the cost variation entailed
in changing the composition of microemulsion is insignificant. However, a low value of
 1362 M. F. Nazar et al.

microemulsion slug mobility requires a higher concentration of polymer in the buffer

solution, which ensures adequate mobility control at the buffer-microemulsion slug inter-
face. The cost or economical feasibility is evaluated at the time of the process requiring
both microemulsion formulations in flooding and oil saturation in reservoir. However, the
cost of a microemulsion can be decreased considerably by developing a new formulation
that uses low surfactant and cosurfactant concentrations along with crude oil in stead
of refined hydrocarbons. Therefore, the economic success or failure of a microemulsion
flooding process depends largely upon the proper choice of a microemulsion slug size.
Jones (1972) described a simple technique for estimating optimum slug size that is defined
in terms of maximum profit generation. It may also be concluded that oil recovery is
maximum near the optimal salinity of the system and thus, in high-salinity reservoirs,
mixed surfactants are promising for EOR. Although this technique is rapid and convenient
to determine the optimum slug size for an economically feasible process, other factors
such as time value make the process sometimes uneconomical.
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Conclusion
Over the past 30 years, chemical EOR technology using microemuslsions has evolved to
be suitable due to greater industrial experience, comprehensive understanding, excellent
modeling, and cost-effective chemicals adjusted for inflation. Chemical EOR, however,
especially ASP, is a complex technology requiring a high level of expertise and experience
to ensure its successful execution in the oil fields. Operators can increase both oil recovery
and profit by using scientific research-based technologies; appropriate geological survey
and characterization; and exact reservoir modeling and engineering designs. Effective
monitoring and control system of the oil field may increase oil recovery.
Research in EOR is attributed to design and implementation of novel chemical
methods. Mixtures, particularly of surface-active chemical substances, are incorporated in
the injection formulations in this technology. This aims at oil displacement that takes place
due to attaining ultra-low interfacial tensions and reduced fluid viscosity in oil reservoirs.
Knowledge of interfacial science, physicochemical properties of chemical systems, and
geological characteristics of the rock matrices is central to devising a high oil recovery
process.

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