Novel insights into the geochemical evaluation of polymer drive composition on surfactant retention in carbonates using the surface complexation modeling

Surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding is considered an efficient technique to increase the recovery of oil, especially from carbonates reservoirs, because of their complex nature. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of polymer drive composition on surfactant retention. We developed a geochemical model that uses various surface complexation reactions at the mineral/brine interface, oil/brine interface, surfactant/brine interface, and oil/surfactant interface. We also incorporated four new surface complexation reactions that honor oil/surfactant geochemical interaction to determine the influence of polymer composition on surface retention for the first time. Then we validated the developed geochemical model against coreflooding experimental data. Additionally, we investigated the influence of various parameters of polymer drive on surface retention under high temperature and salinity using the suggested surface complexation model. The findings showed that our surface complexation model can estimate surfactant retention and its concentration in the effluent with a certain accuracy during polymer drive. The developed geochemical model is validated against single-phase and two-phase coreflooding experimental data. The findings revealed that for a more representative and accurate estimation of surfactant retention in chemical flooding, it is important to consider the oil/surfactant surface complexation reactions. Moreover, the detailed and comprehensive analysis showed that with the increase in temperature of the polymer drive, the retention of surfactant increases, and its concentration in the effluent decreases. The latter shows that surfactant retention is a more chemical process as opposed to physio-retention. It is also shown that the injection of a specific composition of polymer drive after a surfactant slug could decrease the surfactant retention, which is related to the force of repulsion between the ionic species and the rock surface. Moreover, the effect of hard ions (calcium and magnesium) in polymer drive is significant where the increase in the concentration of hard ions increases the retention of surfactant. Furthermore, it is important to mention that the lowest level of surfactant retention was achieved through a certain composition of polymer drive, thus the polymer solution dilution is not an effective approach. This is the first study to test a novel formulation of surface complexation modeling that considers the oil/surfactant effect on surfactant retention corresponding to the composition of polymer drive. The suggested framework to determine surfactant retention is conducted for harsh reservoir conditions of temperature and salinity and suggests that the surface complexation reactions for all rock-forming minerals must be considered.