Published research showed that alcohols are able to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between surfactant and oil when added even in small amounts. Much of the work had focused on primary alcohols. This paper presents our preliminary investigation on the effects of branched alcohols on interfacial tension changes in crude oil- sodium dodecyl sulphate mixtures. Branched alcohols are chosen because many forms of bio-waste contain a significant number of branched components and a cheaper product is expected if the natural structure of the feedstock can be exploited. Our results show that 0.5 wt of branched alcohols result in similar amount of reduction caused by 1 wt of sodium hydroxide. Sodium carbonate gives better performance than sodium hydroxide or the branched alcohols used, however its use is limited to low salinity conditions. More studies will be conducted with an emphasis on the effects of branching, solvation ratio and salinity. © Copyright 2011, International Petroleum Technology Conference