Large Scale Carbon Dioxide Production from Coal-fired Power Stations for Enhanced Oil Recovery: A New Economic Feasibility Study

Limiting the increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, and at the same time, meeting the increased energy demand can be achieved by applying carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies, which hold potential as the bridge for energy and emission-intensive industries to decarbonization goals. At the moment, the only profitable industrial large-scale carbon sequestration projects are large-scale carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) projects. This paper gives a general overview of the indirect and direct use of captured CO2 in CCUS with a special focus on worldwide large-scale CO2-EOR projects and their lifecycle emissions. On the basis of scientific papers and technical reports, data from 23 contemporary large-scale CO2-EOR projects in different project stages were aggregated, pointing out all the specificities of the projects. The specificities of individual projects, along with the lack of standardized methodologies specific for estimating the full lifecycle emissions resulting from CO2-EOR projects, pose a challenge and contribute to uncertainties and wide flexibilities when estimating emissions from CO2-EOR projects, making the cross-referencing of CO2-EOR projects and its comparison to other climate-mitigation strategies rather difficult. Pointing out the mentioned project’s differentiations and aggregating data on the basis of an overview of large-scale CO2-EOR projects gives useful information for future work on the topic of a CO2-EOR project’s lifecycle emissions.

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Use of nanoparticles to improve thermochemical resistance of synthetic polymer to enhanced oil recovery applications: a review

CT&F - Ciencia Tecnología y Futuro ◽

10.29047/01225383.259 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 85-97

Author(s):

Henderson Ivan Quintero Perez ◽

Maria Carolina Ruiz Cañas ◽

Ruben Hernan Castro Garcia ◽

Arnold Rafael Romero Bohorquez

Keyword(s):

Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽

Oil Recovery ◽

Large Scale ◽

Polymer Concentration ◽

Molecular Size ◽

Economic Feasibility ◽

Chemical Degradation ◽

Synthesis Process ◽

Scale Production ◽

The Impact

Partially Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide (HPAM) is the polymer most used in chemical enhanced oil recovery (cEOR) processes and it has been implemented in several field projects worldwide. Polymer injection has shown to be an effective EOR process. However, it has not been implemented massively due to HPAM polymer's limitations, mostly related to thermal and chemical degradation caused by exposure at high temperatures and salinities (HTHS). As an alternative, a new generation of chemically stable monomers to improve the properties of HPAM has been assessed at laboratory and field conditions. However, the use of enhanced polymers is limited due to its larger molecular size, large-scale production, and higher costs. One of the alternatives proposed in the last decade to improve polymer properties is the use of nanoparticles, which due to their ultra-small size, large surface area, and highly reactive capacity, can contribute to reduce or avoid the degrading processes of HPAM polymers. Nanoparticles (NPs) can be integrated with the polymer in several ways, it being worth to highlight mixing with the polymer in aqueous solution or inclusion by grafting or chemical functionalization on the nanoparticle surface. This review focuses on hybrid nanomaterials based on SiO2 NPs and synthetic polymers with great EOR potential. The synthesis process, characterization, and the main properties for application in EOR processes, were reviewed and analyzed. Nanohybrids based on polymers and silica nanoparticles show promising results in improving viscosity and thermal stability compared to the HPAM polymer precursor. Furthermore, based on recent findings, there are great opportunities to implement polymer nanofluids in cEOR projects. This approach could be of value to optimize the technical-economic feasibility of projects by reducing the polymer concentration of using reasonable amounts of nanoparticles. However, more significant efforts are required to understand the impact of nanoparticle concentrations and injection rates to support the upscaling of this cEOR technology.

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