Analysis of enhanced oil recovery formulations

Summary Methods for the determination of low levels of surfactants in produced oil field brines have been developed. Alkylbenzene sulfonates (ABS) and alkylether sulfates can be quantified at very low levels by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mobile-phase ion chromatography (MPIC), respectively. These methods proved to be rapid, selective, and gave results in excellent agreement with traditional low-phase titration techniques. Although this paper records the use of these methods for analysis of oil field produced fluids, they should be easily adaptable to other situations wherein the analysis of these two classes of surfactants is required.