Experimental investigation on CO2-light crude oil interfacial and swelling behavior

A systematic series of experiments are designed and performed including interfacial tension (IFT) measurements concomitant with Bond (BN, the ratio of gravity forces to capillary forces) and swelling/extraction measurements. Dynamic IFT, BN and swelling/extraction are measured as a function of pressure at temperatures of 30, 50 and 80 °C. In addition, in the light of measured IFT the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) of CO2 and light crude oil is determined based on a method called vanishing interfacial tension (VIT). The obtained results interestingly revealed that equilibrium IFT decreases linearly with pressure in two distinct pressure intervals while equilibrium BN shows an increasing trend as a function of pressure for all of the studied cases while no obvious trend is observed for swelling of crude oil and extraction of light-components regarding time, temperature and pressure.