Abstract One of the major problems in heavy oil recovery in Mexican carbonate reservoirs is related to the formation of highly stable and viscous water-in-oil emulsions, which impacts on decreasing in hydrocarbon production. This fact is derived from the presence of high amounts of asphaltenes in the oil, as well as from the high concentrations of divalent ions in the formation water. In order to develop a technological solution for this problem, in this work a theoretical/experimental methodology is presented, which allows the development of new surfactants with multifunctional capabilities, such as changes in rock wettability, interfacial tension and emulsion breaking up. The molecular modeling is used to study emulsions formation, as well as the demulsifying capability of two kinds of surfactants: branched geminal zwitterionic liquids and new zwitterionic macrocyclic oxo-aza-crown ethers. Spontaneous-imbibition studies were carried out in order to determine the capacity of these surfactants to increase the oil recovery factor. Both theoretical and experimental parts show that the new macrocyclic surfactants presented a better performance than the branched germinal zwitterionic surfactants, therefore, they constitute a potential technological solution to increase oil recovery factor in the mentioned reservoirs. Their emulsion breaking up capacity, allows to extract oil from the porous media and avoids formation of new emulsions in the extraction process.

中文翻译：

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用于乳化稠油采收的大环和线性两性离子表面活性剂的比较性能的分子模拟和实验测试

摘要 墨西哥碳酸盐岩油藏稠油采收的主要问题之一是形成高度稳定的粘性油包水乳状液，影响油气产量下降。这一事实源于油中存在大量沥青质，以及地层水中二价离子浓度高。为了开发该问题的技术解决方案，在这项工作中提出了一种理论/实验方法，该方法允许开发具有多功能能力的新型表面活性剂，例如岩石润湿性、界面张力和乳液破裂的变化。分子模型用于研究乳液的形成，以及两种表面活性剂的破乳能力：支链两性离子液体和新型两性离子大环氧氮杂冠醚。进行了自吸研究以确定这些表面活性剂提高采油率的能力。理论和实验部分表明，新型大环表面活性剂比支化生发两性离子表面活性剂表现出更好的性能，因此，它们构成了提高上述油藏采油率的潜在技术解决方案。它们的破乳能力允许从多孔介质中提取油并避免在提取过程中形成新的乳液。理论和实验部分表明，新型大环表面活性剂比支化生发两性离子表面活性剂表现出更好的性能，因此，它们构成了提高上述油藏采油率的潜在技术解决方案。它们的破乳能力允许从多孔介质中提取油并避免在提取过程中形成新的乳液。理论和实验部分表明，新型大环表面活性剂比支化生发两性离子表面活性剂表现出更好的性能，因此，它们构成了提高上述油藏采油率的潜在技术解决方案。它们的破乳能力允许从多孔介质中提取油并避免在提取过程中形成新的乳液。