Investigation of sacrificial agents for reducing surfactant adsorption on carbonates

This paper presents a laboratory investigation on reducing surfactant adsorption by means of sacrificial agents. Lignosulfonate and sodium polyacrylate (NaPA) were investigated comparatively in reducing surfactant adsorption onto carbonates at high temperature and high salinity conditions. High desorption of lignosulfonate impaired its efficiency of reducing surfactant adsorption. Sodium carbonate significantly reduced the surfactant adsorption with a restriction of no divalent metal ions like Ca2+ and Mg2+. NaPA performed as effective as sodium carbonate plus practicality for any water. The competitive adsorptions between the sacrificial agents and the surfactant on carbonate explained why sacrificial agent can reduce surfactant adsorption.