Experimental Investigation of Amine-Surfactant CO2 Foam Stability Enhanced by Silica Nanoparticles

Abstract

The CO2 foam generated by the conventional surfactants usually does not show long-term stability due to the substantial solubility and diffusivity of CO2 in water. Silica nanoparticles with different wettability and high adsorption energy on the gas–water interface can be used as a stabilizer to enhance the stability of the CO2 foam. In this study, nine kinds of nonionic amine surfactants were employed to generate the CO2 foam, while three kinds of silica nanoparticles were selected and added to improve the CO2 foam stability. The influences of various factors, including pressure, temperature, pH, surfactant, and nanoparticle, on the CO2 foam stability have been investigated. The experimental results show that without nanoparticles, the CO2 foam stability decreases with the increase of the number of EO groups in the ethoxylated amine surfactant, especially under high-temperature and high-pressure (HTHP) conditions. In general, the nanoparticles with a low concentration (<0.5 wt %) have little influence on the CO2 foam stability, but when the concentration of nanoparticle is enhanced high enough (1.0 wt %), the CO2 foam stability can be improved significantly. In particular, by adding 1.0 wt % nanoparticle of QS-150 to 0.5 wt % surfactant of C18N(EO)2/10, the CO2 foam stability has been increased 5–6 times, while the volume of generated CO2 foam has been increased by 17–31%. Therefore, in this study, the synergetic mechanisms between the amine surfactants and the silica nanoparticles to generate and stabilize CO2 foam have been identified.