Grant: Idea to Innovation

Introducing a new class of bio-based Gemini viscoelastic surfactant (BioVES) manufactured by solvent free route was a key aspect of the work carried out in our laboratory. BioVES was then tested for a) oilfield applications as reducing friction (FR) during fracturing, IFT reducing and wettability alternating agent for enhancing oil recovery, and iron dissolving agent; all using oilfield brine, and b) surface finisher for cellulose fiber processing and production to enhance the tensile strength along with the properties. What we need is to scale-up the BioVES production process and produce larger quantity of samples for further testing and pilot application. Since the BioVES testing for IFT, rheology, iron dissolution and friction reduction testing is performed at room temperature, it is imperative to expand application of BioVES technology to a wider range temperature using different reservoir oil and produced water, complemented with oil recovery experiments. Moreover, BioVES also needs to be tested at industrial scale for cellulose fiber processing.