Dewetting dynamics of heavy crude oil droplet in low-salinity fluids at elevated pressures and temperatures.

Hypothesis: Improved oil recovery by low-salinity injection correlates to the optimal brine concentration to achieve maximum dewetting of oil droplets on rock surfaces. While interfacial tension and electrical double layer forces are often cited as being determinant properties, we hypothesize that other structural/interfacial forces are more prominent in governing the system behavior.

Experiments: The sessile droplet technique was used to study the receding dynamics of oil droplets from flat hydrophilic substrates in brines of different salt type (NaCl and CaCl) and concentration, and were studied at both low and elevated temperatures (60 and 140 °C) and pressures (1, 10, 100 and 200 bar).