Effectiveness of Petroleum Sulfonates Synthesized from Some Indian Crudes

Petroleum sulfonates synthesized from crude oil fractions of suitable boiling range are found to possess desirable physical and chemical properties required for chemical flooding process of tertiary oil recovery. This paper discusses the results of laboratory study conducted on petroleum sulfonates synthesized from some indigenous crudes (collected from ONGC oil fields, Gujarat, India). Petroleum sulfonates synthesized from different boiling range distillates of Sanand and Jhalora crudes were purified, dried, preserved and finally evaluated for their interfacial tension behaviour at benzene-aqueous surfactant interface. The study consists of changing surfactant concentration, electrolytes concentration and type, co-surfactant concentration and type and carbon chain length of the oil phase on interfacial tension behaviour. The indigenously synthesized products were also compared with that of a few known standard products such as SLS (Sodium lauryl sulfate, BDH Poole, England) and TRS 10-80 (Witco Company, USA). It has been observed that all the indigenously synthesized products generate comparable reduction in interfacial tension at similar concentration range. It is concluded that Sanand distillates with boiling range 495 to 580°F and Jhalora distillates with boiling ranges 500 to 765°F shows potential to yield the petroleurn sulfonates with low interfacial tension and hence can be useful for surfactant flooding process.