Ionic liquids/Surfactant Mixtures as New Alternatives in Enhanced Oil Recovery

Surfactants are considered as effective candidates in chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) due to their high-level performance in interfacial tension reduction and wettability alteration. Recently, ionic liquids have massively attracted the attention of researchers as alternatives to surfactants in enhanced oil recovery. Available research work have already marked them as ?green chemicals? for the downstream petroleum refinery. However, only few work on (ionic liquids) ILs as surfactants for the EOR has very been reported. Available literature indicates the effectiveness of ionic liquids in the reduction of interfacial tension. In this research, we are proposing the idea of using a mixture of IL with a surfactant for EOR. Different types of commercially available ILs and surfactants will be investigated. Different physical and chemical factors will be studied to determine the new fluids potential for the use in EOR with Omani reservoir oil. Also, aiming the computational study for understanding the molecular interactions behavior of IL in aqueous surfactant mixture using conductor like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS). The accomplishment of this research idea of using mixtures of ILs and surfactant in enhancing oil recovery for Omani oil reservoirs will increase the recovery and would make it economically applicable