Effect of Salinity, Resin, and Asphaltene on the Surface Properties of Acidic Crude Oil/Smart Water/Rock System

It
has been already well established that adjusting the salinity
of displacing fluid critically affects the oil recovery efficiency
during secondary and tertiary oil recovery processes. In this investigation,
systematic experiments are designed and conducted to find the effects
of both low and high salinity water on the surface properties of crude
oil–brine/solid surfaces. In this respect, the effects of the
major salts including NaCl, CaCl2, and MgCl2 are tested in the concentration range of 0–45 000
ppm on fluid/solid and fluid/fluid interactions for a crude oil/water/rock
system. Two main surface properties including contact angle and interfacial
tension (IFT) are measured using a pendant drop apparatus. The obtained
results demonstrate the critical effects of heavy oil components on
the interfacial properties. High film stability in some cases resulted
in small contact angle changes, mostly in the range of the strongly
water wet condition, for different brine salinity.