Molecular dynamics simulation on CO2 foam system with addition of SiO2 nanoparticles at various sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) concentrations and elevated temperatures for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) application

Abstract The effect of adding silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles at various surfactant concentrations, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and elevated temperature of 298 K–383 K in enhancing the oil recovery during CO2 foam flooding via dynamic simulation was investigated. Molecular dynamic simulation of the CO2 foam system of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) application in a reservoir system was conducted using different systems i.e [H2O/CO2/SDS]-[H2O/Hexane] and [H2O/CO2/SDS/SiO2]-[H2O/Hexane], consisting of different number of molecules were constructed prior to the simulation. The critical aggregation concentration (CAC) occurred at 20, 20 and 23 SDS for the system at 298, 308 and 383 K, respectively. The predicted interfacial tension (IFT) for the system without SiO2 decreased from the range of 1.12–5.51 to 0.40–4.57 mN/m while for 1 and 2 SiO2 nanoparticle reduced from the range of 0.46–4.77 to 0.50–2.72 mN/m when the temperature increased from 298 to 383 K.