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Effect of Surfactant‐Assisted Wettability Alteration on Immiscible Displacement: A Microfluidic Study

Drainage displacement at unfavorable viscosity ratios is often encountered in oil recovery, CO2 sequestration, and NAPL remediation, which significantly limits recovery of fluids from porous media. Surfactants have been extensively used as wettability modifiers to improve hydrocarbon recovery from rock matrix by imbibition. But little attention has been paid to the effect of surfactant‐assisted wettability alteration on displacement in non‐fractured porous media. In this study, we investigate surfactant‐assisted immiscible displacement in NAPL‐wet microfluidic chips. We find that the change of advancing contact angle by surfactant is velocity dependent. A stable displacement can be achieved at low velocity when wettability‐altering surfactant solution is used as injection fluid. In comparison, fingering occurs at all capillary numbers for water injection, resulting in low NAPL recovery. The generation of NAPL ganglion during waterflooding is significantly different from that during wettability‐altering surfactant flooding. The generation of NAPL ganglion during wettability‐altering surfactant flooding is related to velocity and saturation due to the wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. In contrast, the production of NAPL ganglion during waterflooding is only saturation dependent. NAPL ganglia generated during wettability‐altering surfactant flooding are primarily within the pore‐size range and can be easily recovered in subsequent recovery processes. To the best of our knowledge, this study reveals for the first time the pore‐scale mechanism of surfactant‐assisted wettability on the immiscible displacement, which is important for highly efficient NAPL remediation.