Synergistic Optimization of Polymer–Surfactant Binary Flooding for EOR: Core-Scale Experimental Analysis of Formulation, Slug Design, and Salinity Effect
Core-scale experiments reveal incremental oil recovery of 42.19% using optimal polymer and surfactant formulations, suggesting improvements in EOR methods.
Key Points
Achieving a maximum incremental oil recovery of 42.19%, this study highlights the effective use of polymer–surfactant flooding for EOR.
The optimal formulation of 0.5% surfactant and 0.15% polymer significantly reduces interfacial tension to 0.007 mN/m.
Core-flooding experiments conducted under varying salinity conditions show that high total dissolved solids degrade viscosity, impacting recovery.
Optimization of slug design with surfactant gradients outperforms fixed-concentration methods, emphasizing the importance of formulation in EOR strategies.