Applications of Magnetic Surfactants in Oilfield

Due to the hydrophobic and hydrophilic characteristics of surfactants and their ease of solubility in both water and oil, they have a wide variety of uses. Conventional surfactants may readily cause wetting owing to the way they are structured, which causes the surface tension to fall and the capillary density to rise. Surfactants are frequently utilized in both oil recovery and oil field drilling because they not only can lower surface tension but also can raise viscosity. In contrast, comprehensive research demonstrates that surfactants do not raise viscosity but can dramatically lower water’s surface tension. As a result, water-soluble polymers can be employed to increase viscosity in drilling, oil recovery, and oil transfer in addition to surfactants. Surfactants with magnetic characteristics can perform better and produce more hydrocarbons in a variety of oilfield sectors. For instance, mud operations or drilling operations are significant petroleum areas where surfactants are frequently utilized. According to studies, magnetic surfactants have a propensity to improve mud transfer, lessen the impacts of corrosion, suspend drilling waste, and lubricate drill bits. According to studies, magnetic surfactants can froth, thicken, and emulsify drilling fluids. Diluents should be added to drilling mud to aid in dispersing the mud’s clay content. In this chapter, the problems of upstream oil industries will be examined first. Then, magnetic surface active materials are introduced as one of the emerging materials to solve these problems, and the role of their structural parameters, including the presence of various transition metals in the counterion and the size and length of the surfactant head and tail groups in their application, will be investigated. In the following, their use in this field will be compared with conventional surfactants. Evidently, some limitations of the use of these materials will be pointed out, and solutions will be proposed to solve these limitations.