Measuring Interfacial Tension Between Oil and Nano-Saline Solutions in the Presence of SiO2 or TiO2 at Low and Intermediate Pressures

In this paper, SiO2 and/or TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were used to enhance the performance of water injection process causing an increase in oil recovery. To this end, several nano saline solutions were prepared from each of the following salt compounds: NaCl, CaSO4, or MgSO4 (1000 ppm) together with different concentrations of SiO2 and/or TiO2 NPs from 0.01 to 0.07 wt.%. Interfacial tensions (IFT) between the oil, collected from Sarvestan oil reservoir, and the saline solutions were measured at low and intermediate pressures, i.e. 14.5, 72.5, 145, 217.5, 290, 362.5, 435, 507.5, and 1160 Psi using a homemade IFT-device. Results showed that SiO2 and/or TiO2 NPs successfully reduced the interfacial tension between the oil and the saline solutions. The maximum reductions of 63.95% and 63.46% were obtained at the pressure of 507.5 Psi for 0.05 wt.% of SiO2 in the MgSO4-H2O solution and 0.05 wt.% of TiO2 in the CaSO4-H2O solution, respectively. The maximum IFT reductions for NaCl-H2O-TiO2, NaCl-H2O-SiO2, MgSO4-H2O-TiO2, and CaSO4-H2O-SiO2 solutions were 58.13%, 49.65%, 36.18%, and 20.88%, respectively.