10.57647/j.ijic.2025.1604.14

Chickweed-Derived Natural Surfactant and Nano-TiO₂ for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Carbonate Reservoirs

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  • Saeid Alamdari1,
  • Moein Nabipour*1,
  • Amin Azdarpour1,
  • Bizhan Honarvar1,
  • Nadia Esfandiari1,
  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Marv. C., Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran

Received: 2025-08-23

Revised: 2025-09-30

Accepted: 2025-12-25

Published in Issue 2025-12-30

Copyright (c) 2025 Saeid Alamdari, Moein Nabipour, Amin Azdarpour, Bizhan Honarvar, Nadia Esfandiari (Author)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Alamdari, S., Nabipour, M., Azdarpour, A., Honarvar, B., & Esfandiari, N. (2025). Chickweed-Derived Natural Surfactant and Nano-TiO₂ for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Carbonate Reservoirs. International Journal of Industrial Chemistry, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.57647/j.ijic.2025.1604.14
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Abstract

This study investigates the potential of chickweed (CW)–derived natural surfactants, combined with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (Nano-TiO₂), for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in carbonate reservoirs. The addition of Nano-TiO₂ further improved stability, interfacial tension (IFT) reduction, and wettability alteration, benefiting from synergistic interactions between nanoparticles, surfactant molecules, and divalent cations. Foamability studies revealed strong and persistent foaming behavior, indicating additional potential for mobility control. Core flooding experiments confirmed that tertiary injection of chickweed surfactant increased recovery by approximately 14% original oil in place (OOIP), while the hybrid surfactant–nanoparticle solution achieved approximately 20% OOIP, outperforming surfactant-only flooding. These results demonstrate that chickweed-derived surfactants, especially in combination with nanoparticles, provide an eco-friendly and effective alternative to synthetic chemicals for EOR applications in challenging carbonate reservoirs.

Keywords

  • Chickweed,
  • EOR,
  • Natural surfactant,
  • Nano-TiO2,
  • Oil recovery factor
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