Palm Fatty Acid Methyl Ester in Reducing Interfacial Tension in CO2-Crude Oil Systems

The interfacial tension (IFT) is one of the most important parameters affecting the ability of CO2 to become miscible with crude oil. The high IFT difference between CO2 and crude oil resulted to more problems during the displacement such as fingering and segregation. Extensive research on chemicals to be used as additives in reducing the IFT between CO2 and crude oil has been done. However, large amounts of chemical are required with field application. This paper presents a preliminary study on the application of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from palm to reduce the IFT with crude oil and CO2. In this work, FAME is used as an additive in the mixture of CO2 and crude oil. Vanishing interfacial technique (VIT) was used to determine the effect of the additive on CO2-crude oil system. With this finding, an economical approach was obtained which is suitable for mass application in the reservoir.