Performance of water-based foams affected by chemical inhibitors to retard spontaneous combustion of coal

The micelle generating process of the sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS) solution with the addition of chemical inhibitors was elucidated using phase separation model, and the descending order of the capacity for the selected chemical inhibitors to reduce the critical micelle concentrations of the solution are Mg Cl_2, Ca Cl_2,NH_4HCO_3 and NH_4Cl. The data to quantitatively describe the foam decay process, including foaming ratio,foam life and decay behaviors, was obtained by pressure measuring system. The results indicate that chemical inhibitors can improve the solution foamability. The capacity of the inhibitors to enhance the solution foamability is sorted as NH_4 Cl, NH_4HCO_3, Mg Cl2 and Ca Cl_2 which can distinctly improve the foam stability as well. The capacity of the inhibitors to enhance the SDS foam stability can be arranged as Mg Cl_2, NH_4 Cl, NH_4HCO_3 and Ca Cl_2. It is observed that the gravity drainage plays a leading role in the increase of proportion of diffusion drainage. The oxidation dynamic parameters of the coal samples treated by inhibition foams were investigated using thermal analysis technique, and their synergistic effects on inhibiting coal oxidation were explored.

A new method of testing frother performance

A new method of testing frother performance was proposed. Four parameters were tested： maximum foam volume, foam half-life, gas-liquid ratio and mean foam rise velocity. Among them the former two parameters indicate frother＇s foaming ability and foam stability respectively, and the latter two indicate water carrying ability and foam viscosity, respectively. The performance of four frothers in a two-phase （solution-air） system was tested and batch flotation tests on a copper ore were carried out. By analyzing frother performance in a two-phase system and comparing with the flotation results, correlation between them was found. Higher-copper concentrate grade was obtained by frothers with weak water carrying ability and low foam viscosity. And frothers with strong foaming ability and stable foam tend to obtain higher copper recovery.

Modeling of kinetic characteristics of alkaline-surfactant-polymer-strengthened foams decay under ultrasonic standing wave

Foaming issues are encountered at the stages in crude oil production, transportation, processing, especially in chemical flooding enhanced oil recovery(EOR) oilfields. These accumulated foams would cause a lot of trouble for downstream operation. The destruction of foams under ultrasonic has been increasingly paying attention in the background of green oilfield development. This study focuses on the decay kinetic characteristics of alkaline-surfactant-polymer-strengthened foams under the ultrasonic standing wave.The performance of the diverse foams was characterized. A decay kinetic model incorporating the energy correlation was developed and validated. The factors that affect the decay kinetic characteristics were discussed. The results indicated that the collapse rate and the collapse volume fraction decreased when the foam size decreased, the gas-liquid ratio decreased and the surface tension increased. Ultrasonic standing wave parameters have a significant impact on the decay behavior of the foam. Both the ultrasonic frequency and ultrasonic amplitude were increased by 50%, the collapse volume fraction of foams increased by about 1.25 times in the identical irradiation time. The relative deviation between the measured results and the model prediction was less than 10%. The potential collapse mechanism was also explained using the principle of energy correlation of foam surface. This study is not only beneficial to provide a robust and rigorous way to defoam of produced liquid in the alkaline/surfactant/polymer(ASP)flooding EOR process but also meaningful to well understand the decay process of oil-based foams.