Recent advances in switchable surfactants for heavy oil production:A review

Surfactants are extensively employed in the cold production of heavy oil.However,producing heavy oil emulsions using conventional surfactants poses a challenge to spontaneous demulsification,necessitating the addition of demulsifiers for oil-water separation.This inevitably increases the exploitation cost and environmental pollution risk.Switchable surfactants have garnered much attention due to their dual capabilities of underground heavy oil emulsification and surface demulsification.This study focuses on the fundamental working principles and classification of novel switchable surfactants for oil displacement developed in recent years.It offers a comprehensive overview of the latest advances in the applications of switchable surfactants in the fields of enhanced oil recovery(EOR),oil sand washing,and oil-water separation.Furthermore,it highlights the existing challenges and future development directions of switchable surfactants for heavy oil recovery.

Performance on Power,Hot and Cold Water Generation of a Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal Module

This paper proposed a new function of photovoltaic thermal(PVT)module to produce nocturnal cool water not just only generating electrical power and hot water during daytime.Experimental tests were carried out under Chiang Mai tropical climate with a 200 Wp monocrystalline PVT module having dimensions of 1.601 m×0.828 m connected with two water tanks each of 60 L taken for hot and cool water storages.The module was facing south with 18o inclination.The electrical load was a 200 W halogen lamp.From experiments,by taking the module as a nocturnal radiative cooling surface,the cool water temperature in the cool storage tank could be reduced 2℃–3℃each night and the temperature could be reduced from 31.5℃to 22.1℃within 4 consecutive days.The cool water at approximately 23℃was also used to cool down the PVT module from noon when the PVT module temperature was rather high,and then the module temperature immediately dropped around 5℃and approximately 10%increase of electrical power could be achieved.A set of mathematical models was also developed to predict the PVT module temperature and the hot water temperature including the cool water temperature in the storage tanks during daytime and nighttime.The simulated results agreed well with the experimental data.

Investigation of feasibility of alkali-cosolvent flooding in heavy oil reservoirs

Cold production is a challenge in the case of heavy oil because of its high viscosity and poor fluidity in reservoir conditions.Alkali-cosolvent-polymer flooding is a type of microemulsion flooding with low costs and possible potential for heavy oil reservoirs.However,the addition of polymer may cause problems with injection in the case of highly viscous oil.Hence,in this study the feasibility of alkali-cosolvent(AC)flooding in heavy oil reservoirs was investigated via several groups of experiments.The interfacial tension between various AC formulations and heavy crude oil was measured to select appropriate formulations.Phase behavior tests were performed to determine the most appropriate formulation and conditions for the generation of a microemulsion.Sandpack flooding experiments were carried out to investigate the displacement efficiency of the selected Ac formulation.The results showed that the interfacial tension between an AC formulation and heavy oil could be reduced to below 1o-3 mN/m but differed greatly between different types of cosolvent.A butanol random polyether series displayed good performance in reducing the water-oil interfacial tension,which made it possible to form a Type Il microemulsion in reservoir conditions.According to the results of the phase behavior tests,the optimal salinity for different formulations with four cosolvent concentrations(0.5 wt%,1 wt%,2 wt%,and 3 wt%)was 4000,8000,14000,and 20000 ppm,respectively.The results of rheological measurements showed that Type Ill microemulsion had a viscosity that was ten times that of water.The results of sandpack flooding experiments showed that,in comparison with waterflooding,the injection of a certain Ac formulation slug could reduce the injection pressure.The pressure gradient during waterflooding and AC flooding was around 870 and 30-57 kPa/m,respectively.With the addition of an AC slug,the displacement efficiency was 30%-50%higher than in the case of waterflooding.