Synthesis and physiochemical characterization of zwitterionic surfactant for application in enhanced oil recovery

Surfactant increases recovery of oil from reservoir by decreasing the interfacial tension (IFT) between oleic and aqueous phase and changing wettability of reservoir rock from oil-wet to water-wet. In current work, a carboxybetaine based zwitterionic surfactant have been synthesized by quaternization of dodecyldimethylamine with chloroacetate. The synthesized surfactant has been characterized by FTIR, H-1 NMR and TGA analysis. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized surfactant were measured to check its effectiveness for application in chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The synthesized surfactant decreased the IFT between crude oil and water from 17 mN/m to 3.77 x 10(-2) mN/m at a low critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 500 ppm. The synthesized surfactant solution was also effective in changing the wettability of oil wet quartz sample to water wet. Sand pack experiments showed additional oil recovery of 27.03% by flooding of surfactant slug at CMC. These results evidence the suitability of the synthesized surfactant for application in chemical EOR. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.