The comparison study of IFT and consumption behaviors between organic alkali and inorganic alkali

Alkali plays an important role in alkali/surfactant/polymer (ASP) technology. The mechanisms of alkali were reviewed in this paper and the advantages were significant. In this study, three main steps were conducted. Firstly, ethanolamine was selected from four organic alkalies (ethanolamine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine and triethylamine) by interfacial tension (IFT) tests. Then the selected organic alkali, ethanolamine, was compared with inorganic alkali (sodium carbonate) by IFT performance. The results showed that ethanolamine had low IFT like inorganic alkali and it has lower IFT than sodium carbonate when concentration was higher than 0.8%. Secondly, alkali consumption experiment was conducted to compare organic alkali and inorganic alkali. The results indicated that ethanolamine had lower consumption than inorganic alkali, which maintained the efficiency of ASP flooding. Finally, the concentrations of silicon and aluminum in solution were measured to evaluate the reservoir damage caused by alkali. The results found that ethanolamine system had the lower concentrations of silicon and aluminum than inorganic alkali, which means it caused less reservoir damage. Thus, ethanolamine may be a potential alkali which can replace inorganic alkali in ASP technology.