Novel zwitterionic surfactant derived from castor oil and its performance evaluation for oil recovery

Bio-based surfactants have attracted increasing attention due to their renewable resources and excellent surface properties. Novel zwitterionic surfactant derived from castor oil was prepared using a facile and high-yield route and its performance for oil recovery was also evaluated. The surface tension of the surfactant solution reached 30.7   mN/m at its critical micelle concentration value of 7.08   ×   10 −6   mol/L. The interfacial tension between crude oil and water could be reduced to ultra-low value as 5.4   ×   10 −3   mN/m at a low dosage of 0.010   g/L in aqueous solution with the absence of any extra alkali. When used as dispersant, the dispersion effectiveness of crude oil was 64.69%. Meanwhile, the bio-based surfactant demonstrated strong electrolyte tolerance, temperature resistance and thermostability, better wetting and foaming performance, which implied bio-based surfactants had great potential to replace traditional petroleum-based surfactants in petroleum industries, in particular, in enhanced oil recovery and oil spill disposal processing.