Uji Kinerja Surfaktan MES (Metil Ester Sulfonat) dari Stearin Sawit untuk Enhanced Water Flooding

Abstract

Surfactant has been widely used for the application of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) by decreasing the interfacial tension. Recently, most of the surfactants that are still used are petrochemical surfactants. MES surfactant is a surfactant derived from renewable resources that can replace petrochemical surfactant and has many advantages. The study was conducted by formulating the surfactant solution, testing performance of the surfactant formula, and testing the core flooding. The results of the study showed that palm stearin MES surfactant was compatible to the water injection of Ty field. The formulation generated average number of interfacial tension formula up to 7.88E-03 dyne/cm, so the formulation met the expected number of IFT for EOR. The thermal stability test showed that palm stearin MES surfactant is heat resistant. It was proven by the low of IFT number increasing and the decreasing of both viscosity and density. Phase behavior showed that the phase between oil and surfactant were in the type II (-) or low phase. Core flooding test was done by differentiation of surfactant solution injection of 0.1PV, 0.2PV, 0.3PV and soaking for 12 hours. The Incremental recovery that is obtained after the surfactant solution injection was between 12-14% OOIP. Statistical analysis showed that the variation of pore volume that was injected has no significant effect to the oil recovery, but it increased with increasing of surfactant volume that was injected. Therefore, stearin MES surfactant has good performance to be applicated for enhanced waterflooding in the Ty field.