Study On Physicochemical Properties And Toxicity Of Polymer Surfactants Used In Oilfields

Polymer surfactant, which combines the advantages of polymer and surfactant, is a new type of oil displacement agents in oilfield, and is a kind of economical and efficient flooding agents for its single component in the enhanced oil recovery. As the field tests of polymer surfactant used for EOR are carried out, the results show that the polymer surfactant is very different from the general polymers, which were used for EOR in the same field, but with the differences of the production, type, structure, component, physicochemical properties and toxicity, the polymer surfactant exhibits unknown,which impacts the applications , health and safety.In order to clarify its physicochemical properties and potential impacts on the operator health during production, firstly,the components and structure in the two topical polymer surfactants were analyzed and characterized by FT-IR and chemical methods, respectively. Secondly,the physicochemical properties and stability of the polymer surfactants were investigated. Thirdly,the toxicity of the flooding agents was determined through the mice experiments. Finally, polymer surfactants solutions were prepared by using fresh water and after-filtration waste water. The hazardous composition and toxicity in the solutions were analyzed as well as the impacts on the human health. The results show that the polymer surfactant is copolymerizated by acrylamide (AM) monomers with surface active groups, its backbone is the chain of poly acrylamide (PAM), and particular surface active groups are prafted by copolymerization in the side chain; polymer surfactant-A is copolymerizated with anionic and non-ionic in the main chain , polymer surfactant-B is with cationic surfactants, therefore, two polymer surfactants have some chemical properties compared with polyacrylamides and surfactants. The 14-day-feed-mice test was demostrated positive results .That indicated the two polymer surfactants were relatively non-toxic under the maximum dose (feeding the mice 10-12 times in 24 hours, 5mL each feeding). Ammonia was clearly identified for the domain pollutant in the production environment . The impacts of polymer surfactant powder were evaluated for the occupational health and safety during the preparation. Based on the above data and the relative methods,suggestions on the protection were proposed. It can provide a safe and healthy working environment for the operators with enormous social and economic benefits.