Novel Surfactant for the Reduction of CO2/Brine Interfacial Tension

Muhammad Sagir, Isa M. Tan, Muhammad Mushtaq, Lukman Ismail, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Rizwan Azam, Muhammad Rehan Hashmet

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    18 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    The synthesis of novel CO2 philic surfactant using maleic anhydride and dipropylene tertiary butyl alcohol is reported. The synthesis involved the esterification of maleic anhydride to produce bis(2-(2-(tert-butoxy)propoxy)propyl) maleate and subsequent sulfonation of the esterified product. Para toluene sulfonic acid was employed as catalyst for the esterification reaction. The esterification reaction was optimized for the maximum yield of 98% of bis(2-(2-(tert-butoxy)propoxy)propyl) maleate. The esterification reaction kinetics employing heterogeneous catalyst were also studied. Although this is a bimolecular reaction, a first order reaction kinetics with respect to acid has been observed. The activation energy was found to be 58.71 kJ/mol. The diester was followed by the sulfonation process and a yield of 85% of surfactant was achieved. The synthesized surfactant successfully lowered down the IFT between CO2/brine to 1.93 mN/m. This surfactant has a great potential to be used for CO2-EOR applications.

    Original languageBritish English
    Pages (from-to)463-470
    Number of pages8
    JournalJournal of Dispersion Science and Technology
    Volume35
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Mar 2014

    Keywords

    • EOR
    • interfacial tension
    • kinetics
    • surfactants

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