Synthesis and Performance of a New Surfactant for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Due to the high cost of surfactant production caused by petrochemical
feedstocks, considerable attention has been given to non-edible vegetable oils
as an alternative source of feedstock. In this paper, a new non-edible oil
derived surfactant based on Jatropha plant is synthesized. A single step route
was used for synthesizing epoxidized methyl ester sulfonate (EMES) for
enhanced oil recovery application. The performance of the resultant surfactant
was studied by measuring the interfacial tension between the surfactant
solution and crude oil, and its thermal stability at reservoir temperature. The
EMES showed properties similar to sodium dodecyl sulfate, such as the
reduction of interfacial tension to 3.45 mN/m. The advantage of the newly
EMES is the low cost of production that makes it a promising surfactant for
enhanced oil recovery application and other uses.