The effect of ethoxylated nonyl phenols on viscosity of crude oil

ABSTRACT

In this study, viscosities of different crude oils was determined in the temperature range of (298–373 K) in presence of ethoxylated nonyl phenols as nonionic surfactant with ethoxy group numbers 4 and 9 (nonyl phenol 4 and nonyl phenol 9). Viscosity was measured using Viscolab PVT viscometer. Viscosity of crude oil decreased with the increase of concentration in the range of 0–1.4 g l⁻¹). The most radical change was observed in the presence of nonyl phenol 9. For both surfactants, the viscosities of crude oil decreased with the increase of temperature, but the effect of temperature on the viscosity of crude oil decreased when surfactant concentration increased. Because of the formation of mixed micellar aggregates, the effect of mixed surfactants on the reduction of viscosity was more obvious than individual surfactant, but mixed surfactants had very little sensitivity to the temperature than individual surfactant. The best mixture of two surfactants system was observed in the mass ratio of 3 for nonyl phenol 9 and nonyl phenol 4.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethoxylated nonyl phenols
• enhancing oil recovery
• mixed micellar aggregates
• surfactant
• viscosity

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Institute of Petroleum Engineering for invaluable help for measurements of viscosity. We also thank from Kimyagaran Emrooz, chemical industry company, Iran, for supplying us with surfactants.

Notes

¹ EO, is ethylene oxide group.