Publications

The Duri field reached the peak of primary phase production of 65 thousand barrels per day in 1965 and then decreased the amount of production naturally as pressure dropped in the reservoir. The fluid that can be used to increase oil production is surfactant. Surfactant is a substance that can be used to decrease interfacial tension of the chemical fluids. The capability of surfactant to decrease the interfacial tension between surfactants and hydrocarbon fluid in EOR applications is strongly influenced by the conditions of oil well formation, concentration, surfactant concentration and surfactant quality. One of the surfactants that can be used is Sodium Lignosulfonate (SLS). In this research, SLS surfactant is made from raw waste bunches of palm oil where these wastes will be rich in lignin but are as yet untapped and there are also many found at the Duri oil field. The aim of this research is to understand the effect of H2SO4 concentration to the yield of lignin isolation. The material used in this research is the waste of oil palm bunches, aquadest, H2SO4 (concentration 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%), NaOH, NaHSO3, and CH3OH. The lignin isolation process starts from raw waste bunches of palm oil with the mixing of H2SO4 at various concentrations and NaOH which serves to assist the purification process. Chemical groups analysis on lignin were performed using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy). The result of this research is lignin with 20% concentration of H2SO4 produced the highest yield in the amount of 22.98% for clean lignin. Based on the FTIR analysis, results showed that the compounds in the surfactant granules that have been made are SLS. By purifying this lignin, it will produce SLS which in quantity and quality can meet the requirements for EOR in the Duri field.