Enhanced oil recovery using graphene oxide nanoparticles synthesized from agricultural waste materials

The present study explores the utilization of agricultural waste especially tea waste and rice husk, as low-cost sources of graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles synthesis to be used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Graphite was also synthesized to GO to act as a comparison. GO was synthesized through a modified procedure of Hummer, and its characterization was done through FTIR, XRD, EDX and SEM. Nanofluids were prepared by dispersing GO in polyacrylamide (PAM), and the best concentrations were found to be 100 ppm (GO), 300 ppm (GO_T), and 500 ppm (GO_RH). All of the samples showed a large decrease in interfacial tension (IFT), with GO/PAM yielding the lowest IFT value of 11.02 mN/m. Experiments Sand pack flooding experiments demonstrated improved oil recoveries of 81.80%, 80.61% and 77.65% in GO, GO_T and GO_RH respectively, as compared to 64.21% in polymer-only and 36.98% in water flooding. These findings reveal the effectiveness and sustainability of GO prepared using agricultural waste to conduct EOR.