Effect of Fe3O4/Mineral–Soil Nanocomposites on Wettability Alteration and Oil Production Under the Spontaneous Imbibition Process

Nanoparticles as novel EOR agents are used to enhance the production of crude oil. This improvement is due to the improved surface activity at the crude oil–brine–rock interface and disjoining pressure. The aim of this study was to examine the role of the greenly synthesized nanocomposites (NCs) in EOR applications. For this purpose, Fe 3 O 4 /mineral–soil NCs were synthesized from the extract of Euodia hortensis plant and characterized using several analytical techniques. Nanofluids were prepared from dispersing the synthesized NCs in distilled water at different ranges of concentrations from 250 to 1000 ppm. The role of the developed nanofluids on the IFT reduction, wettability alteration and oil recovery was experimentally examined. Different IFT values of crude oil with the presence of nanofluids were estimated, and the minimum IFT of 3.69 mN/m was obtained with NF1000 solution formulated from mixing 1000 ppm within the distilled water, while the wettability was highly altered toward the strong water-wet system from 99.15 to 22° contact angle when dispersing 1000 ppm of NCs in water. In addition, NF1000 solution was enabled to improve oil recovery by 11.28% original oil recovery (OOIP) under the spontaneous imbibition process.