Influence of Electrical Surface Charges on the Wetting Properties of Crude Oils

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: Reservoir wettability is important to oil recovery by waterflooding and many other oil recovery processes. The difficulties associated with determination of in-situ wettability, together with uncertainties about application of laboratory observations to field conditions, necessitate a more basic understanding of factors that control wettability. We previously reported that the adhesion of crude oil to a solid surface could be related to wettability alteration. In this work, conditions under which oil adheres to a particular solid surface are demonstrated for several crude oils. For a given oil, pH and ionic strength were varied to obtain a mapping of conditions under which adhesion occurs. Results were satisfactorily explained by double-layer calculations in combination with the ionizable surface group model. Lack of adhesion signifies the presence of a stable water film that results from double-layer repulsion between the crude oil and the solid surface.

This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit: