Synthesis of a New CO2 Philic Surfactant for Enhanced Oil Recovery Applications

The synthesis of CO2philic surfactant using maleic anhydride and4-tert-butylbenzyl alcohol is reported. We reacted maleic anhydride with 4-tert-butylbenzyl alcohol to form bis(4-(tert-butyl)benzyl) fumarate and sulfonated the produced diester. The esterification reaction was optimized for a maximum yield of 98 of bis(4-(tert-butyl)benzyl) fumarate. A first order reaction kinetics with respect to acid has been observed. The activation energy was found to be 55.62Â kJ / mol. The sulfonated product of diester was obtained by the sulfonation reaction and the yield of 82 of surfactant was achieved. The in-house developed surfactant effectively lowered down the IFT between CO2/ brine to4.2mN / m. This surfactant is targeted for CO2- EOR applications.