Ismail M. Saaid

The Synthesis and Performance of Sodium Methyl Ester Sulfonate for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Abstract Due to the high cost of surfactant production caused by petrochemical feedstocks, much attention has been given to nonedible vegetable oils as an alternative source of feedstock. A new nonedible oil-derived surfactant based on the Jatropha plant is synthesized. A single-step route was used for synthesizing sodium methyl ester sulfonate (SMES) for enhanced oil recovery application. The performance of the resultant surfactant was studied by measuring the interfacial tension between the surfactant solution and crude oil and its thermal stability at reservoir temperature. The SMES showed a good surface activity, reducing the interfacial tension between the surfactant solution and crude oil from 18.4 to 3.92 mN/m. The thermal analysis of SMES indicates that 26.1% weight loss was observed from 70°C to 500°C. The advantage of the new SMES is the low cost of production, which makes it a promising surfactant for enhanced oil recovery application and other uses.

Permeability Evaluation in Hydrate-Bearing Sand Using Tubular Cell Setup

Production of natural gas from hydrate-bearing sediments is significantly influenced by permeability variations in the presence of gas hydrate. The quantification on how absolute permeability and relative permeability affect natural gas production from hydrate-bearing sediments is one of the key interests for reservoir engineering studies. This study focuses on the relationship between water saturation, permeability, and porosity in unconsolidated quartz sand. Methane hydrate was formed in quartz sand in high-pressure stainless steel cell using deionized water at 276 K and 8 MPa. The sand pack with porosity of 40% was saturated with 35% water. This study found that porosity of the sample reduced significantly as the sand pack saturated with 35% of water. Porosity reduced from 40 to 37.4% due to the increase of hydrate saturation. Absolute permeability is 108.72 mD, and it was measured before gas hydrate formation. Relative permeability was measured after gas hydrate formation, and results show that relative permeability is 0.49. Formation of hydrate in pores significantly reduces the relative permeability and porosity. Relative permeability from this work is compared with a theoretical model, and the value shows that the relative permeability from this work is close to the value from Masuda model with N = 10.

Effect of Porosity to Methane Hydrate Formation in Quartz Sand

Natural gas hydrates are recognized as the potential source of methane gas as the current estimates of the global methane hydrates inventory range between 1000 and 10000 Giga Tonnes of carbon. The behavior of methane hydrate formation in porous media is investigated in the Tubular Hydrate Cell at 8 MPa and 276 K. The present work is focused on finding the optimum porosity of the quartz sand with the grain sizes of 600–800 µm that could accelerate the methane hydrate formation. The effect of different porosity (O of 0.32, 0.34, 0.37, and 0.4) on the methane hydrate induction time, methane hydrate saturation, and the time taken for methane hydrates to completely form in the unconsolidated sand is investigated. The result shows that the optimum value for porosity is 32% based on the fastest time taken for complete formation and largest value of methane hydrate saturation which is 33.35 h and 6.34%, respectively, at the specified operating conditions.

Investigation on performance of cationic polymeric inhibitors for mitigating silicate scales during ASP flooding

The objective of this work is to investigate the production possibility of high octane environmental ethanol gasoline blends based on Euro specifications. The environmental gasoline is the key element to keep the environment safe and clean. Moreover, it reduces gas emissions after combustion of gasoline. One of the main methods to produce the environmental gasoline is blending gasoline with oxygenated compounds such as ethanol. Ethanol is chosen among other oxygenated compounds as it has a high influence on physico-chemical characteristics of gasoline rather than other oxygenated compounds. In addition, it has a high octane number as well as it is not polluting the environment and clean additive. In the experimental study, the choice of environmental gasolines are based on Euro3 specifications for samples without ethanol blend and Euro-5 specifications for samples with ethanol blend; after upgrading. Various blend stocks have been prepared which have reformate, isomerate, full refinery naphtha (FRN), heavy straight run naphtha (HSRN), hydrocracked naphtha, heavy hydrocracked naphtha, coker naphtha and heavy coker naphtha. In this study, ASTM standard methods are performed for spark ignition fuels to characterize its physical and chemical properties. The results show that one has exhibited the optimum specifications of Euro-3 and thus its physico-chemical characteristics are 755.11 kg/m3 of density, 55.88 of °API and 95 of RON, 88 of MON, 40% by volume of aromatic content and 0.66% by volume of benzene content. Moreover, ASTM distillation curve shows that the volume percentage at 150°C is 83. At the same time, the final boiling point (FBP) and recovery volume percent are 198°C and 96% respectively. While another sample has the poorest physical as well as chemical properties so that it is blended with ethanol to upgrade its characteristics. Therefore, the target is determining the optimum ethanol volume percent to be blended with poorest sample to yield the highest properties of gasoline. These blends are namely as E0, E5, E10, E15, E20. The results indicate that E5 is the optimum one for Euro5 specifications after upgrading and thus its physico-chemical characteristics are 745.55 kg/m3 of density, 58 of oAPI, 101 of RON, 98 of MON, 32.65% by volume of aromatic content and 0.47% by volume of benzene content. Moreover, ASTM distillation curve illustrates that the volume percentage at 150°C is 75. At the same time, the final boiling point (FBP) and recovery volume percent are 190°C and 97% respectively. In addition, its Reid vapor pressure equals 8.1 psi and the heat of combustion equals 35 MJ/L. In the final, Blending gasoline with ethanol is an essential issue concerning the production of environmental gasolines. An Experimental Study on the Influence of Ethanol and Automotive Gasoline BlendsThe measurement of relative permeability in carbonate rocks is very uncertain because of the complex pore system. Several equations for the relative permeability have been previously developed. However, most equations assume a single pore system that cannot be applied accurately. This study presents a relative permeability estimation method that considers capillary pressure, contact angle, pore size distribution, and residual oil saturation with respect to the heterogeneous pore network. As results, the capillary pressure was observed to have different tendencies for macropore and micropore. Also, the pore size distribution index of the macropore system was greater than the micropore system. For the macropore, water has a higher relative permeability than oil; a small reduction in oil saturation can easily flow water. In contrast, the micropore tends to follow the conventional relative permeability curve. Therefore, stable water displacement was not assured, leading to an early breakthrough for the heterogeneous carbonate rocks. [Received: July 11, 2016; Accepted: January 2, 2017]

Modeling Pressure Drop in Vertical Wells Using Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) Approach

An accurate estimation of the pressure drop in well tubing is essential for the solution of a number of important production engineering and reservoir analysis problems. Several empirical correlations and mechanistic models have been proposed in the literature to estimate the pressure drop in vertical wells that produce a mixture of oil, water, and gas. Although many correlations and models are available to calculate the pressure loss, these models were developed based on a certain set of assumptions and for particular range of data where it may not be applicable for use in different conditions. In this paper, group methods of data handling (GMDH) is used to build a model to predict the pressure drop in multiphase vertical wells. The developed GMDH model has shown the outstanding results, and it has outperformed all empirical correlations and mechanistic models, which have been compared to. The analysis of the results also confirmed that the testing set achieves accurate estimation of the pressure drop. Trend analysis of the model showed that the model is correctly predicting the expected effects of the independent variables on pressure drop.