Fatty Acid Methyl Ester from Rubber Seed Oil as Additives in Reducing the Minimum Miscibility Pressure of CO2 and Crude Oil

Abstract

Background and Objective: Malaysian reservoir is one of the best candidate to perform CO 2 flooding with abundant CO 2 gas presence in the reservoir and the light crude oil. The high temperature in Malaysian reservoir leads to high miscibility pressure; higher than the fracturing pressure of most reservoirs, which hindering the CO 2 miscible displacement to be achieved. Injection at Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) is crucial in maximizing oil recovery for miscible gas flooding. Chemicals as co-solvent with crude oil and CO 2 such as alcohol has been proved successfulin reducing the MMP. Regardless, the cost and residue of this chemical in crude oil prevent the mass application of this chemical in the reservoir. In addition to the depletion of non-renewal fossil feedstock as chemical sources, renewable biomass source is seen as a promising alternative of a chemical commodity due to abundantly available and biodegradable. The main aim of this study is to study the potential of using chemicals extracted from biomass in EOR. Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) is one of the main chemicals derived from the biomass by the fatty acid transesterification process. Materials and Methods: The ability of the fatty acid methyl ester inenhancing the miscibility between CO 2 and Malaysian crude oil was tested with the slim tube test conducted at pressure ranging from 18 MPa up to 31.03 MPa and ata constant temperature of 90EC. Carbon dioxide gas with 99.99% purity was used to eliminate any impurities that might affect the result. Results: Injection of 10% of slug ofthe renewable FAME as additive shows an MMP reduction of 15% lower than the MMP of the crude oil without the additive. Conclusion: With this finding, alternative green chemical sources have been found, which indirectly utilizing the use of biomass and which is suitable for mass application in the reservoir.