Scientific Contributions Oil and Gas
Vol 48 No 4 (2025)

Utilizing Used Lubricants to Enhance Intermediate Crude Oil Recovery Through Water-in-Oil Emulsions

Mukhlis Noor Alfatih (Universitas Trisakti)
Dwi Atty Mardiana (Universitas Trisakti)
Shabrina Sri Riswati (Universitas Trisakti)
Changhyup Park (Kangwon National University)



Article Info

Publish Date
28 Nov 2025

Abstract

This study experimentally analyzes the impacts of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion derived from used lubricants on enhanced intermediate-crude-oil recovery. The objective is to identify a viable and economically efficient method to enhance the extraction of intermediate crude oil. Typically, W/O emulsions have been employed as displacing fluids in heavy oil reservoirs. According to the results, there have been challenges experienced in the selection of an affordable petroleum-based product and ensuring its availability for emulsion preparation. Used lubricants can be incorporated as a component in the formulation of an emulsion solution by mixing them with brine. The physical and chemical properties of these used lubricants are evaluated to determine their suitability as a displacing agent. Subsequently, several concentrations of the emulsion were prepared, ranging from 5% to 60% (vol/vol), to effectively evaluate their suitability as a displacing fluid. The experimental workflow covered viscosity testing, mobility ratio measurement, IFT evaluation, emulsion stability checks, adsorption analysis, and thermal stability assessment. Core-flooding is performed to determine the recovery factor. A 5% W/O emulsion is found to be an effective displacing fluid for intermediate crude oil. The core-flooding results showes about a 27% increase in recovery when using the conventional flooding emulsion. Overall, the findings indicate that adding used lubricants to W/O emulsions improves intermediate oil recovery due to their favorable viscosity and stability.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

SCOG

Publisher

Subject

Chemical Engineering, Chemistry & Bioengineering Energy

Description

The Scientific Contributions for Oil and Gas is the official journal of the Testing Center for Oil and Gas LEMIGAS for the dissemination of information on research activities, technology engineering development and laboratory testing in the oil and gas field. Manuscripts in English are accepted from ...