Experimental Validation of the Temperature-Resistant and Salt-Tolerant Xanthan Enhanced Foam for Enhancing Oil Recovery

Xanthan enhanced foam (XGF) is a newly developed chemical agent for enhanced oil recovery in high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs. In this paper, laboratory experiments were performed to characterize the morphology and foam properties of XGF, to study its performance under different temperature and different salinity conditions, respectively. Based on simulate reservoir formation conditions of Xidaliya field, a series of research on XGF were conducted. The experimental results showed that the scanning electron microscopy of XGF reflected a more viscoelastic and stable nature of the foam system. High temperature had a great adverse impact upon the stability of XGF, and the increase of salinity in the solution helped to improve the stability of foam. The foam stability increased remarkably when XG4 is added, and an increase in ambient pressure made enhancement of foam stability became more noticeable. In the presence of crude oil, Xanthan could enhance the stability of emulsions and was more favorable to stabilize foam. XG4 enhanced foam had dramatic properties for mobility controlling and oil displacement in the porous media.     

Micellar Enhanced Ultrafiltration of Reactive Black 5 from Aqueous Solution by Cationic Surfactants

Reactive black 5 (RB-5) dye was removed from a water stream using two cationic surfactants, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), via micellar enhanced ultrafiltration. Three membranes with different pore size were used for the determination of rejection coefficient and permeate flux of the solution at 1.5 bar trans-membrane pressure (TMP). The two surfactants (CPC and CTAB) played an almost negligible role in rejection efficiency with 5000 and 10,000 molecular weight cut-off membrane (MWCO), respectively. In this case, high rejection and low permeate flux was the result of a larger molecular size of RB-5 DYE being retained by comparatively smaller sized pores of membrane via ultrafiltration. However, CPC and CTAB surfactants showed 83% and 98% rejection coefficient, respectively, at a concentration greater than their CMC values against 30,000 MWCO. Permeate flux remained low and constant in presence of 5000 and 10,000 MWCO with a small variation against 30,000 MWCO for the two surfactants, thereby no appreciable effect on both surfactant concentrations on concentration polarization was estimated. Thus, RB-5 dye alone was determined to be responsible for membrane plugging or concentration polarization and ultimately for low permeate flux. The effect of trans-membrane pressure was also investigated during this study.     

On the Origin of Foam Stability: Understanding from Viscoelasticity of Foaming Solutions and Liquid Films

The foam stability (drainage half-life) of α-olefin sulfonate (AOS) with partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) or xanthan gum (XG) solution was evaluated by the Warring Blender method. With the increase of polymer (HPAM or XG) concentration, foam stability of the surfactant–polymer complexes increased, and the drainage half-life of AOS-XG foam was higher than that of AOS-HPAM foam at the same polymer and surfactant concentration. With the addition of polymer (HPAM or XG), the viscoelasticity of bulk solution and the liquid film were enhanced. The viscoelasticity of AOS-XG bulk solution and liquid film were both higher than that of AOS-HPAM counterparts.      

Nanofluid in Hydrophilic State for EOR Implication Through Carbonate Reservoir

More than 50% of oil is trapped in petroleum reservoirs after applying primary and secondary recovery methods for removal. Thus, to produce more crude oils from these reservoirs, different enhanced oil recovery (EOR) approaches should be performed. In this research, the effect of hydrophilic nanoparticles of SiO₂ at 12 nm size, in (EOR) from carbonate reservoir is systematically investigated. Using this nanoparticle, we can increase viscosity of the injection fluid and then lower the mobility ratio between oil and nanofluid in carbonate reservoirs. To this end, a core flooding apparatus was used to determine the effectiveness and robustness of nanosilica for EOR from carbonate reservoirs. These experiments are applied on the reservoir carbonate core samples, which are saturated with brine and oil that was injected with nanoparticles of SiO₂ at various concentrations. The output results depict that, with increasing nanoparticle concentration, the viscosity of the injection fluid increases and results in decreased mobility ratio between oil and nanofluid. The results confirm that using the nanoparticle increases the recovery. Also, increasing the nanoparticle concentration up to 0.6% increases the ultimate recovery (%OOIP), but a further increase to 1.0 does not have a significant effect.     

DCE-MRI参数联合IFIT1基因对腰椎间盘突出患者椎间盘退变程度的评估价值

探讨DCE-MRI参数及IFIT1基因对腰椎间盘突出症(LDH)患者椎间盘退变(IDD)程度的评估价值。随机选取确诊的66例LDH患者作为研究对象,根据改良Pfirrmann分级法将患者分为2组:轻中度IDD(Ⅰ~Ⅲ级)组(46例)和重度IDD(Ⅳ~Ⅴ级)组20例。通过DCE-MRI检查考察患者的K-trans值,采用日本骨科学会评分(JOA)评估腰椎功能,采用视觉模拟评分法(VAS)评估腰部疼痛,采用RT-PCR检测外周血单个核细胞(PBMC)中IFIT1的mRNA表达。轻中度IDD组的K-trans值显著低于重度IDD组。轻中度IDD组患者PBMC中的IFIT1 mRNA相对表达量显著低于重度IDD组。K-trans值与PBMC中的IFIT1 mRNA水平和VAS评分正相关,与JOA评分负相关(P<0.05)。PBMC中的IFIT1 mRNA水平与VAS评分正相关,与JOA评分负相关(P<0.05)。K-trans值和PBMC中的IFIT1 mRNA水平联合诊断重度IDD的AUC值、敏感性和特异性分别为0.991、91.3%和100.0%,AUC值和特异性均高于单独诊断。DCE-MRI检查中的K-trans值联合PBMC中的IFIT1 mRNA水平可用于LDH患者IDD程度的诊断。     

Plasmonic photoelectrochemical reactions on noble metal electrodes of nanostructures

Plasmonic noble metal nanostructures have been targeted due to their strong surface plasmon resonance at photoelectrochemical interfaces. Recently, it has been concluded that, the plasmonic noble metal nanostructures on photoexcitation permit the transfer of effective hot carriers (hot electron/hole pair) to nearby adsorbed molecules where, the transformed hot carriers can efficiently decrease the activation barrier of a reaction. In this review, our recent achievements in the plasmon-mediated chemical reactions of organic molecules such as para-aminothiophenol, substituted para-aminothiophenol and para-nitrothiophenol at nanostructures modified noble metal electrodes using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, electrochemical methods, and theoretical calculations will be discussed.     

Solubility of Anthraquinone Derivatives in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide: New Correlations

Solubility of several anthraquinone derivatives in supercritical carbon dioxide was readily available in the literature, but correcting ability of the existing models was poor. Therefore, in this work, two new models have been developed for better correlation based on solid–liquid phase equilibria. The new model has five adjustable parameters correlating the solubility isotherms as a function of temperature. The accuracy of the proposed models was evaluated by correlating 25 binary systems. The proposed models observed provide the best overall correlations. The overall deviation between the experimental and the correlated results was less than 11.46% in averaged absolute relative deviation (AARD). Moreover, exiting solubility models were also evaluated for all the compounds for the comparison purpose.     

Phytochemical and Biological Evaluation of a Newly Designed Nutraceutical Self-Nanoemulsifying Self-Nanosuspension for Protection and Treatment of Cisplatin Induced Testicular Toxicity in Male Rats

The incorporation of cisplatin (CP) as a cytotoxic antineoplastic agent in most chemotherapeutic protocols is a challenge due to its toxic effect on testicular tissues. Natural compounds present a promising trend in research, so a new nutraceutical formulation (NCF) was designed to diminish CP spermatotoxicity. A combination of three nutraceutical materials, 250 mg Spirulina platensis powder (SP), 25 mg Tribulus terrestris L. extract (TT), and 100 mg fish oil (FO) were formulated in self-nanoemulsifying self-nanosuspension (SNESNS). SP was loaded into the optimized self-nanoemulsifying system (30% FO, 50% span 80/cremophor EL and 20% isopropanol) and mixed with TT aqueous solution to form SNESNS. For the SP, phytochemical profiling revealed the presence of valuable amounts of fatty acids (FAs), amino acids, flavonoids, polyphenols, vitamins, and minerals. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and particle size analysis confirmed the formation of nanoemulsion-based nanosuspension upon dilution. Method validation of the phytochemical constituents in NCF has been developed. Furthermore, NCF was biologically evaluated on male Wistar rats and revealed the improvement of spermatozoa, histopathological features, and biochemical markers over the CP and each ingredient group. Our findings suggest the potential of NCF with SNESNS as a delivery system against CP-induced testicular toxicity in male rats.