Adsorption of a Foam Agent on Porous Sandstone and its Effect on Foam Stability

Abstract

This paper presents the adsorption kinetics and equilibrium of a CO2 foaming agent onto Berea sandstone and the adsorption effect on its foam stability. Results show that the adsorption of the foaming agent onto sandstone takes about 1 week to reach equilibrium and the adsorption process is well fit by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption kinetics coefficient decreases with the increase of initial concentration and their relationship is well fitted by two straight lines. The adsorption density increases with surfactant concentration and their relationship is well fitted by Freundlich isotherm model rather than Langmuir isotherm model. The foam stability of the effluent foam agent that flowed through sandstone is much weaker than that of the same concentration of fresh foaming agent that was not exposed to sandstone. It is suggested that the chromatographic adsorption should be considered when optimizing the compositions of a good foaming agent. In addition, the transport mechanisms of the foam agent through sandstone were elucidated by comparing the adsorption kinetics of the foam agent on five non-porous minerals common in sandstone with that on porous sandstone and through the sandstone pore microstructure analysis.

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Sponsor(s)

Missouri University of Science and Technology
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
United States. Department of Energy

Keywords and Phrases

Adsorption equilibrium; Adsorption kinetics; Foam stability; Sandstone; Surfactant; Adsorption isotherms; Surface active agents; Berea sandstone; Concentration of; Foam; Sandstone

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0927-7757

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2010 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2010

Link to Full Text

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