Synthesis of Iron Oxide (Fe2O3)-Xanthan Gum Nanoparticle Composites Its Potential as a Chemical Flooding Media in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

Increasing oil consumption in Indonesia encourages an improvement of production using chemical flooding Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology. Chemical is injection method materials based on polymer and nanoparticles such as α-Fe2O3-xanthan gum nanocomposite into the reservoir. In this study, α-Fe2O3 were synthesised then blended to xanthan by sonochemical through ex-situ process. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that there are no additional peaks. Only peaks detected with crystallite size around 16-20 nm. particle (1:1) measured Particle Size Analyzer (PSA) was 228.43 nm type polydisperse. functional group a combination groups which other compounds IR spectra. EOR test showed had significant effect increasing viscosity nanofluid 1.964 cP at 1:2 composition. Based these results, potential material used process