Experimental Investigation of Matricaria chamomilla Extract Effect on Oil-Water Interfacial Tension: Usable for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery

Recently, natural surfactants had been studied for chemical enhanced oil recovery as opposite to synthetic surfactants due to environmental problems associated with synthetic surfactants. In this study a new plant based natural surfactant, Matricaria chamomilla, is introduced. For this purpose, the interfacial tension values between natural surfactant solution and oil are measured by using the pendant drop method. The results show that Matricaria chamomilla decreased the oil-water interfacial tension values from 30.63 to 12.57 mN/m. Results confirm surface chemical activity of Matricaria chamomilla in comparison with other natural surfactants.