Publications

Partially Hydrolysed Polyacrylamide (HPAM) is a polymer widely used for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) applications. High molecular weight HPAM produces a high viscosity even at low concentrations, although, this polymer is irreversibly degraded by high shear rate, such as in pumps and near the well bore region of the formation. In addition, the viscosity of the HPAM solution is sensitive to salinity and hardness. As salinity and hardness increases, the viscosity of HPAM solution decreases rapidly. Because of these HPAM disadvantages, it is necessary to modify HPAM, to improve its properties.In this research a polymer with more resistance to mechanical degradation and more stable to high salinity, based on cellulosic polymer, will be synthesized. Polyacrylamide (PAM) has been graft copolymerized onto carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), in order to improve its salinity tolerance and the resistance of HPAM to mechanical degradation. CMC used for this research was synthesized from Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunch (POEFB) cellulose, a solid waste emerging from the Crude Palm Oil (CPO) industry. Through the use of this raw material, it is anticipated that this polymer will be produced more economically.The graft copolymer product is characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) and the rheology properties characterized by the Fann VG viscometer. Rheology properties show that the synthesized polymers were more resistant to salinity and shear rate compared the commercial polymers. However, concerning its viscosity, higher concentrations of the synthesized polymer should be used to reach a viscosity similar to the commercial ones. To explore the feasibility of these polymers in EOR applications, a displacement experiment was conducted on a 2D model. This revealed that this polymer is comparable with a commercial polymer in increasing the recovery factor. The incremental recovery factor obtained by the injection of synthesized or commercial polymers was 0.1.