PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF 1-HEXADECYL-3- METHYLIMIDAZOLIUM BROMIDE, LAURYL GLUCOSIDE AND DECANE IN CREATING WINSOR TYPE-III MICROEMULSION

Abstract

While ionic liquids are usually high in cost, only small amounts are needed to establish their beneficial characteristics combined with the utilization of a cosurfactant. A cationic surface-active ionic liquid, 1-hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide (C16mimBr) has been chosen as the main surfactant because it is non-volatile, nonflammable, and able to withstand high temperature. However, it has been studied that this ionic liquid poses a major threat to the aquatic environment, thus another surfactant is needed as a cosurfactant. Lauryl glucoside was used as the cosurfactant because it is environmentally friendly, has low toxicity and excellent biodegradability. The potential of this surfactant mixture for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) application was investigated by conducting stages of phase behaviour study, specifically using the phase diagram method. The optimized formulation C16mimBr-lauryl glucoside microemulsion consists of 4 wt% salinity, 0.5 wt% C16mimBr, and 1 wt% lauryl glucoside were determined based on the appearance of a high volume of middle phase microemulsion in a wide range of oleic phase. The performance of the microemulsion system in reducing IFT was measured using a spinning drop tensiometer at room temperature. The presence of lauryl glucoside as a cosurfactant shows a decent performance in reducing IFT, thus showing the great potential of this biosurfactant, replacing traditional alcohol. It is concluded that the formulation of C16mimBr-lauryl glucoside microemulsion with optimized parameters reaches low IFT instead of ultralow. The critical micelle concentration was determined to be at 0.05 wt% of the aqueous phase.

Keywords

• enhanced oil recovery
• surfactant
• ionic liquid
• alkyl polyglucoside