Production of Biodegradable Sulfonated Methyl Ester by a Falling Film Reactor for ASP Flooding in EOR

Petroleum production can be improved through enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods such as chemical injection. This study focused on sulfonation of methyl ester using SO3 dissolved in oleum compounds (H2SO4.SO3) in a mini-pilot falling film reactor at 70 °C and its application for chemical EOR with ASP flooding. The reactor was equipped with cooling water to facilitate heat transfer in view of the highly exothermic reaction. Biodegradable methyl ester sulfonate, a biosurfactant, was produced from esterification of vegetable oils, palm kernel oil, and coconut oil. The MES products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared testing, which showed S=O and -OH groups peaks, indicating that sulfonation had occurred. The IFT test data showed that the MES from CNO produced the lowest IFT values for light oil and heavy oil, equal to 11.4 mN/m and 10.3 mN/m, respectively. The effect of the MES concentration on the phase behavior was an increase of the IFT value before being applied in ASP flooding, and a decrease after reaching the optimum condition. The EOR core flooding test with the formulated ASP resulted in original oil in place (OOIP) percentages in the range of 12 to 23.5%. The highest acquisition was 23.53% OOIP for an ASP composition of 200 ppm, 0.5%wt, 2800 ppm, respectively

Corrosion Inhibition Performances of Imidazole Derivatives-Based New Ionic Liquids on Carbon Steel in Brackish Water

In this study, imidazole derivative-based new ionic liquids were investigated as corrosion inhibitors. These new ionic liquids (ILs) are 1,3-dipropyl-2-(2-propoxyphenyl)-4,5-diphenylimidazole iodide (IL1) and 1,3-dibutyl-2-(2-butoxyphenyl)-4,5-diphenylimidazole iodide (IL2). The corrosion inhibition effects of two new ILs were observed on carbon steel in brackish water media (1% NaCl solution). Carbon steel coupons were exposed to 1% NaCl solution with various concentrations of ILs. Corrosion inhibition effects were tested by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method and the Tafel method at various temperatures ranging from 25 °C to 55 °C. The results showed that ILs have potential as corrosion inhibitors and the adsorption mechanisms of IL1 and IL2 on carbon steel surfaces were also determined, which followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. Acquisition of ∆Gads values of IL1 and IL2 were −35.04 and −34.04 kJ/mol, respectively. The thermodynamic data of the ILs show that semi-chemical and or physical adsorptions occurred on carbon steel surfaces

Graphene Oxide-Based Nanofiltration for Hg Removal from Wastewater: A Mini Review

Mercury (Hg) is one of heavy metals with the highest toxicity and negative impact on the biological functions of living organisms. Therefore, many studies are devoted to solving the problem of Hg separation from wastewater. Membrane-based separation techniques have become more preferable in wastewater treatment area due to their ease of operation, mild conditions and also more resistant to toxic pollutants. This technique is also flexible and has a wide range of possibilities to be integrated with other techniques. Graphene oxide (GO) and derivatives are materials which have a nanostructure can be used as a thin and flexible membrane sheet with high chemical stability and high mechanical strength. In addition, GO-based membrane was used as a barrier for Hg vapor due to its nano-channels and nanopores. The nano-channels of GO membranes were also used to provide ion mobility and molecule filtration properties. Nowadays, this technology especially nanofiltration for Hg removal is massively explored. The aim of the review paper is to investigate Hg removal using functionalized graphene oxide nanofiltration. The main focus is the effectiveness of the Hg separation process

Antibacterial-based ionic liquids for environmental wastewater treatment

The volume of wastewater in the environment is increasing, so a new breakthrough is needed to overcome the pollutants contained in it, such as bacteria, heavy metal ions, and organic compounds. Ionic liquids (ILs) have antibacterial properties, so they can be used as antibacterial agents to inhibit the growth of bacteria and even destroy them. To effectively inhibit bacteria in wastewater, it is critical to consider the hydrophilic, lipophilic, polar, or non-polar properties of ILs. Imidazolium-based cations are considered to have an excellent antibacterial activity level compared to other cations. As an antibacterial agent, ILs work by getting inside the bacterial membrane through the cell wall, then destroying the DNA and ribosomal components which induce bacterial cell death. The optimum condition of imidazolium-based ILs has the best performance compared to other types of cations, which can be seen from their effectiveness in inhibiting bacteria based on minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values. This review paper concludes that ILs have great potential in the future to be applied as antibacterial agents in wastewater treatment. However, from an economic point of view, the use of ILs still needs further study because it is always the biggest challenge in wastewater treatment applications

Prediction of CO2 with amine functionalized ionic liquids interaction using density functional theory

The current increase in Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has the potential to exacerbate the climate impact. As a result, technologies that reduce CO2 emissions, such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), must be developed, such as ionic liquids (ILs)-based technology. Due to their outstanding properties and capability to capture CO2, ILs have been considered a green solvent to replace volatile organic solvents currently used in the separation and purification of natural gas. Among them, amine-functionalized ILs have enhanced capability to capture CO2. Nevertheless, the interaction between amine-functionalized with CO2 still is lagging. Therefore, this research aimed to provide an understanding of the interaction between amine-functionalized ILs and CO2 by examining the bonding energy of the IL, its cation and anion, and the complexation energy with CO2 using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) method on the molecular simulation software Gaussian 09W and GaussView 5.0. Gaussian 09W is used to optimize the bond and determine the complexation energy, while GaussView 5.0 is used for the geometry visualization. The bonding energies of [2-aemim]+, [BF4]-, [PF6]-, [DCA]-, [TfO]-, [Tf2N]-, CO2, and each of the five IL combinations were calculated using DFT. The complexation energy of each of the IL-CO2 combinations can then be calculated using the bonding energy data obtained from the simulation. The obtained complexation energy for IL-CO2 containing anion [BF4]-, [PF6]-, [DCA]-, [TfO]-, [Tf2N]-, are -499.32, -277.95, -750.25, -305.97, and -174.48 MJ/mole respectively. The DFT calculation revealed that the CO2 interaction with amine-functionalized ILs could be increased by weakening the cation-anion interaction strength. Interestingly, the rank of anion interaction strength with the cation follows a similar trend with the anion molecular size. From this findings, further researchers are able to initially and easily predict novel IL before doing further lab experiments, and following the identification of ILs with high CO2 solubility, the suitability of amine-functionalized ILs can be further investigated, leading to the development of compatible and highly functional solvents to improve CO2 separation performance

Predicting ionic liquid efficiency as steel corrosion inhibitor under static hydrochloric acid immersion using group contribution method

As a novel corrosion inhibitor, ionic liquid has garnered a growing amount of interest. Different electrodes, such as carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper, magnesium, and others; different electrolytes, such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and seawater; different condition operations at different temperatures and tribological properties; and various techniques, such as weight loss (WL), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), and electro impedance spectroscopy (EIS), have been investigated. Due to the large number of cations and anions, this conventional laboratory study may not be completed anytime soon. Therefore, IL as a corrosion inhibitor must be investigated further. The purpose of this study is to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of IL as a corrosion inhibitor in 1 M HCl immersion on carbon steel using the group contribution method. Cations and anions were divided into 29 functional groups (FG) of cations and 17 functional groups (FG) of anions using 74 IL and 760 WL data points collected from various studies. Training and test set results have R2 values of 0.639 and AARD values of 14.9%; validation set results have R2 values of 0.319 and AARD values of 14.4%; and the overall data point evaluation has R2 values of 0.324 and AARD values of 14.3%

Conversion of Glucose to 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural, Levulinic Acid, and Formic Acid in 1,3-Dibutyl-2-(2-butoxyphenyl)-4,5-diphenylimidazolium Iodide-Based Ionic Liquid

The separation process between 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and trace glucose in glucose conversion is important in the biphasic system (aqueous–organic phase), due to the partial solubility property of HMF in water. In addition, the yield of HMF via the dehydration reaction of glucose in water is low (under 50%) with the use of Brønsted acid as a catalyst. Therefore, this study was conducted to optimize the production and separation of products by using a new hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL), which is more selective than water. The new IL (1,3-dibutyl-2-(2-butoxyphenyl)-4,5-diphenyl imidazolium iodide) [DBDIm]I was used as a solvent and was optimized for the dehydration reaction of glucose to make a more selective separation of HMF, levulinic acid (LA), and formic acid (FA). [DBDIm]I showed high performance as a solvent for glucose conversion at 100 °C for 120 min, with a yield of 82.2% HMF, 14.9% LA, and 2.9% FA in the presence of sulfuric acid as the Brønsted acid catalyst