Assessment of CO2-soluble non-ionic surfactants for mobility reduction using mobility measurements and CT imaging

CT slices of CO2 (purple) flowing into a Berea sandstone core initially saturated with brine (yellow). At ~0.3 pore volumes of CO2 injected, poor sweep efficiency is evidenced by flow of CO2 through high perm layers (left). The dissolution of 0.06 wt% nonionic surfactant Huntsman SURFONIC® TDA-9 in the CO2 results in high sweep efficiency, piston-like flow of a CO2-in-brine foam (right) that is generated in-situ.