Engineering Commons^™

Exploring The Effects Of Aromatic Molecules In Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery, Jacob M. Crain, Cliff Johnston, Rituraj Borgohain

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Chemical enhanced oil recovery (cEOR) methods are being used as a viable contributor to the world’s growing energy demands. Due to the complex chemical composition of crude oil, attempting to optimize the surfactant concentration and salinity of formulations is done empirically. This process can be very time intensive due to the wide variety of surfactant structures available for cEOR. Surfactant selection is typically done by matching the average chain length of the oil with that of the surfactant. In this study, we are trying to understand how aromatic structures present in Illinois Basin crude oil interact with surfactants. This will …