scholarly journals In-Situ Heavy Oil Aquathermolysis in the Presence of Nanodispersed Catalysts Based on Transition Metals

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Firdavs A. Aliev ◽  
Irek I. Mukhamatdinov ◽  
Sergey A. Sitnov ◽  
Mayya R. Ziganshina ◽  
Yaroslav V. Onishchenko ◽  
...  

The aquathermolysis process is widely considered to be one of the most promising approaches of in-situ upgrading of heavy oil. It is well known that introduction of metal ions speeds up the aquathermolysis reactions. There are several types of catalysts such as dispersed (heterogeneous), water-soluble and oil soluble catalysts, among which oil-soluble catalysts are attracting considerable interest in terms of efficiency and industrial scale implementation. However, the rock minerals of reservoir rocks behave like catalysts; their influence is small in contrast to the introduced metal ions. It is believed that catalytic the aquathermolysis process initiates with the destruction of C-S bonds, which are very heat-sensitive and behave like a trigger for the following reactions such as ring opening, hydrogenation, reforming, water–gas shift and desulfurization reactions. Hence, the asphaltenes are hydrocracked and the viscosity of heavy oil is reduced significantly. Application of different hydrogen donors in combination with catalysts (catalytic complexes) provides a synergetic effect on viscosity reduction. The use of catalytic complexes in pilot and field tests showed the heavy oil viscosity reduction, increase in the content of light hydrocarbons and decrease in heavy fractions, as well as sulfur content. Hence, the catalytic aquathermolysis process as a distinct process can be applied as a successful method to enhance oil recovery. The objective of this study is to review all previously published lab scale and pilot experimental data, various reaction schemes and field observations on the in-situ catalytic aquathermolysis process.

2012 ◽  
Vol 268-270 ◽  
pp. 547-550
Author(s):  
Qing Wang Liu ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Zhen Zhong Fan ◽  
Jiao Wang ◽  
Rui Gao ◽  
...  

Liaohe oil field block 58 for Huancai, the efficiency of production of thickened oil is low, and the efficiency of displacement is worse, likely to cause other issues. Researching and developing an type of Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer for exploiting. The high viscosity of W/O emulsion changed into low viscosity O/W emulsion to facilitate recovery, enhanced oil recovery. Through the experiment determine the viscosity properties of Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer. The oil/water interfacial tension is lower than 0.0031mN•m-1, salt-resisting is good. The efficiency of viscosity reduction is higher than 90%, and also good at 180°C.


2012 ◽  
Vol 608-609 ◽  
pp. 1428-1432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Long Qin ◽  
Zeng Li Xiao

The aquathermolysis of Shengli heavy oil during steam stimulation was studied by using a new oil-soluble catalyst for the reaction in this paper. The laboratory experiment shows that the viscosity reduction ratio of heavy oil is over 75% at the circumstances of 200°C, 24 hs, 0.3 % catalyst solution. The viscosity of upgraded heavy oil is changed from 25306mPa•s to 6175mPa•s at 50°C. The chemical and physical properties of heavy oil both before and after reaction were studied by using column chromatography (CC) analysis and elemental analysis (EL). The percentage of saturated hydrocarbon、aromatic hydrocarbon and H/C increased, and resin、asphalt and the amount of element of S,O and N decreased after the aquathermolysis. The changes of the composition and structure of the heavy oil can lead to the viscosity reduction and the improvement the quality of heavy oil. The results are very useful for the popularization and application of the new technology for the in situ upgrading of heavy oil by aquathermolysis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 502 ◽  
pp. 179-183
Author(s):  
Hong Jing Zhang ◽  
Shuang Bo Dong ◽  
Zhe Kui Zheng

Aiming at the source and corrosiveness of carbon dioxide, the in-situ carbon dioxide generation technology to enhance oil recovery was proposed。This paper presents the in-situ carbon dioxide generation technology mechanism, the expansion, viscosity reduction; oil-displacement efficiency and foamy oil of this technology were experimentally evaluated by using microscopic models and physical models. The experimental results indicated that the in-situ carbon dioxide generation technology could be used to produce enough carbon dioxide and get good efficiencies of oil expansion, reduction of viscosity and enhancement of oil displacement. Under the conditions of 2010mPa•s in oil viscosity, 60°C and 10MPa, the volume of oil could be expanded by25%, and the viscosity of oil can reduced to 52.7% , and the CO2 can displacement,restraining viscous fingering and changing liquid flow direction and carrying the residual oil.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1010-1012 ◽  
pp. 1693-1698
Author(s):  
Yi Ding ◽  
Guo Wei Qin ◽  
Peng Liu ◽  
Zi Li Fan ◽  
Hong Wei Xiao ◽  
...  

Heat self-generated CO2 technique is proposed, which is focused on the problems of recovery difficulty, poor effect steam soaking and so on for heavy oil reservoirs. This technology is combining of steam flooding and gas flooding and so on. Its main mechanism is the application of steam heating blowing agent to generate a large volume of gases (including CO2, NH3, etc) in the formation. While some of these gases acting with the oil to reduce the oil viscosity, some form miscible flooding to reduce water interfacial tension, so as to achieve the purpose of enhancing oil recovery. An optimized selection of the heat blowing agents was performed. By comparison the difference before and after the reaction of blowing agent solution, the increase of alkaline is occurred after the reaction, and is helpful to reduce oil viscosity and lower interfacial tension, etc. Studies indicate that heat-generating CO2 flooding technology can get a maximum viscosity reduction rate of 76.7%, oil-water interfacial tension decreased by 54.77%, further improve oil recovery by 4.17% based on the steam drive, which shows a technical advantage toward conventional EOR method. The field experiments indicate that the technique can greatly improve the oil production, which will provide a powerful technical supporting for the efficient development of heavy oil.


2012 ◽  
Vol 616-618 ◽  
pp. 680-684
Author(s):  
Zheng Jun Long ◽  
Ya Rong Fu ◽  
Dong Qing Li ◽  
Li Xia Fu ◽  
Qian Fu

The high water content of heavy oil emulsions are O / W or W / O unstable estate, to solve the problem of heavy oil wells in the viscosity, after a large number of laboratory tests, a water-soluble drag reduction agent(DRA) with excellent drag reducing effect for high water heavy oil well is developed. The water-soluble DRA does not have combustible nature and solves also the problem of the security risk commonly used lower flash point viscosity reducing agent in paraffin oil well. The formulations and preparation method of the water-soluble drag reduction agent are introduced and the field applications are evaluated in this paper. The applications of more than 110 oil wells in Fifth Oil Production Plant in North China Oilfield have shown that the heavy oil viscosity reduction and drag reduction effects of water-soluble DRA are remarkable, and the hot wash cycle of oil well is prolonged.


SPE Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 130-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan Lu ◽  
Huiqing Liu ◽  
Wei Zhao ◽  
Keqin Lu ◽  
Yongge Liu ◽  
...  

Summary In this study, the effects of viscosity-reducer (VR) concentration, salinity, water/oil ratio (WOR), and temperature on the performance of emulsions are examined on the basis of the selected VR. Different VR-injection scenarios, including single-VR injection and coinjection of steam and VR, are conducted after steamflooding by use of single-sandpack models. The results show that high VR concentration, high WOR, and low salinity are beneficial to form stable oil/water emulsions. The oil recoveries of steamflooding for bitumen and heavy oil are approximately 31 and 52%, respectively. The subsequent VR flooding gives an incremental oil recovery of 5.2 and 6.4% for bitumen and heavy oil, respectively. Flooding by steam/VR induces an additional oil recovery of 8.4–11.0% for bitumen and 12.1% for heavy oil. High-temperature steam favors the peeling off of oil and improving its fluidity, as well as the in-situ emulsions. VR solution is beneficial for the oil dispersion and further viscosity reduction. The coinjection of high-temperature steam and VR is much more effective for additional oil production in viscous-oil reservoirs.


2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (04) ◽  
pp. 508-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Lapene ◽  
Louis Castanier ◽  
Gerald Debenest ◽  
Michel Yves Quintard ◽  
Arjan Matheus Kamp ◽  
...  

Summary In-Situ Combustion. In-situ combustion (ISC) is an enhanced oil-recovery method. Enhanced oil recovery is broadly described as a group of techniques used to extract crude oil from the subsurface by the injection of substances not originally present in the reservoir with or without the introduction of extraneous energy (Lake 1996). During ISC, a combustion front is propagated through the reservoir by injected air. The heat generated results in higher temperatures leading to a reduction in oil viscosity and an increase of oil mobility. There are two types of ISC processes, dry and wet combustion. In the dry-combustion process, a large part of the heat generated is left unused downstream of the combustion front in the burned-out region. During the wet-injection process, water is co-injected with the air to recover some of the heat remaining behind the combustion zone. ISC is a very complex process. From a physical point of view, it is a problem coupling transport in porous media, chemistry, and thermodynamics. It has been studied for several decades, and the technique has been applied in the field since the 1950s. The complexity was not well understood earlier by ISC operators. This resulted in a high rate of project failures in the 1960s, and contributed to the misconception that ISC is a problem-prone process with low probability of success. However, ISC is an attractive oil-recovery process and capable of recovering a high percentage of oil-in-place, if the process is designed correctly and implemented in the right type of reservoir (Sarathi 1999). This paper investigates the effect of water on the reaction kinetics of a heavy oil by way of ramped temperature oxidation under various conditions. Reactions. Earlier studies about reaction kinetic were conducted by Bousaid and Ramey (1968), Weijdema (1968), Dabbous and Fulton (1974), and Thomas et al. (1979). In these experiments, temperature of a sample of crude oil and solid matrix was increased over time or kept constant. The produced gas was analyzed to determine the concentrations of outlet gases, such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and oxygen. This kind of studies shows two types of oxidation reactions, the Low-Temperature Oxidation (LTO) and the High-Temperature Oxidation (HTO) (Burger and Sahuquet 1973; Fassihi et al. 1984a; Mamora et al. 1993). In 1984, Fassihi et al. (1984b) presented an analytical method to obtain kinetics parameters. His method requires several assumptions.


1985 ◽  
Vol 25 (02) ◽  
pp. 227-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gbolahan O. Lasaki ◽  
Richard Martel ◽  
John L. Fahy

Abstract This paper presents the design of the U.S. DOE Laramie Energy Technology Center's (LETC) Project TS-4, which involves numerical simulation of both in-situ reverse combustion and steamflooding. The simulator showed that the combustion could be limited and contained in a middle 10-ft [3-m] interval with a correlatable High-permeability streak within the 65-ft [20-m] pay zone of the upper Rimrock tar sand formation in Northwest Asphalt Ridge, Uintah County, UT. A high-transmissibility path was necessary to obtain adequate injectivity and sustain a stable reverse combustion. Combustion "echoes" developed and the front changed into a forward mode as the formation pressure increased and at very low air-injection rates. Oil recovery by steam injection was accelerated in a formation preheated by a reverse combustion. Introduction In 1973 LETC began a series of projects aimed at identifying feasible oil recovery techniques for the large deposits of tar sands in the U.S. Two previous combustion experiments have been reported by LETC: Land et al previous combustion experiments have been reported by LETC: Land et al reported the LETC TS-1C, and Johnson et al reported the LETC TS-2C. Both of these were conducted in the Northwest Asphalt Ridge tar sand deposit (T4S-R20E), in Uintah County, in 1975 and 1977, respectively. These were followed by a steamflood experiment, LETC TS-1S, in 1980 in the same area. Analysis of this steamflood experiment indicated that only 18.5% of the original oil in place (OOIP) was mobilized because of poor communication between the injector and the producers. It was clear at this point that the producers had to be stimulated to improve the oil mobility around the wellbores. Steam soaking was considered but discarded because of the lack of adequate reservoir pressure. Since LETC had been successful with its previous use of combustion, the use of reverse combustion to preheat the previous use of combustion, the use of reverse combustion to preheat the producers and possibly the entire sand was considered. A reverse producers and possibly the entire sand was considered. A reverse combustion is preferred to forward combustion because it eliminates the problem of plugging. Project TS-4, therefore, involves a combination of problem of plugging. Project TS-4, therefore, involves a combination of in-situ reverse combustion and steamflooding. The site selected for the test is about 200 ft [61 m] southeast of the location of the LETC TS-1S experiment. The project targets the 65-ft [20-m] pay zone of the upper Rimrock tar sand formation rather than the lower Rimrock targeted in all previous experiments. The sand is well confined and fairly continuous with previous experiments. The sand is well confined and fairly continuous with varying levels of shaliness. The formation bitumen saturation is about 80% compared with 35 to 65% in the lower Rimrock. The permeability of the unextracted core is less than 1 md in some parts and generally one or two orders of magnitude less than that of the lower Rimrock. Preliminary field tests ordinarily showed very poor injectivity without fracturing the formation. The in-situ reverse combustion is intended to preheat the formation rapidly before steamflooding the entire formation. It is confined to a 10ft [3-m] interval that includes a correlatable high-permeability streak to limit the air requirement. It also is expected that good communication can be established between the injector and producers while reducing the oil viscosity and, thus, improving the mobility of the oil. This paper reports a simulation study evaluating the feasibility of this project on a commercial scale and presents a conceptual study of the experiment using a numerical simulator previously described by Coats. Owing to the recent defederalization of LETC, the planned field test for Project TS-4 now has been abandoned. Geology The Northwest Asphalt Ridge is located at T4S-R20E in the Uintah Basin, Uintah County, UT. The geology of this area is described in a greater detail by Campbell and Ritzma. The ridge is separated from the major Asphalt Ridge by a northeast-trending fault. The strata dip southwesterly from about 9 to 350 Average dip angle at the TS-4 location is about 28. The Rimrock sandstone is a member of the Late Cretaceous Mesaverde formation. The other member of the group in this location is the Asphalt Ridge sandstone. Both are of marine origin and oil impregnated. The Rimrock sandstone is unconformably overlain by Tertiary Duchesne River formation of continental origin. It is underlain by the Asphalt Ridge sandstone and separated from it by a thin tongue of Mancos shale. SPEJ p. 227


2019 ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pourafshary ◽  
H. Al Farsi

The primary heavy oil recovery is low due to the high viscosity and low mobility; hence, conventional thermal enhanced oil recovery methods such as steam flooding are widely applied to increase the oil production. New unconventional method such as microwave assisted gravity drainage (MWAGD) is under study the change the viscosity of the oil by microwave radiation. Different challenges such as heat loss and low efficiency are faced in unconventional thermal recovery methods especially in deep reservoirs. To improve the performance of unconventional methods, nanotechnology can play an important role. Nanomaterials due to their high surface to volume ratio, more heat absorbance, and more conductivity can be used in a novel approach called nanomaterial/microwave thermal oil recovery. In this work, several nanofluids prepared from nanoparticles such as γ-Alumina (γ-Al2O3), Titanium (IV) oxide (TiO2), MgO, and Fe3O4 were used to enhance the oil viscosity reduction in the porous media under MWAGD mechanism. Our tests showed that adding nanoparticles can increase the absorption of microwave radiation in the oil/ water system in the porous media. The magnitude of this increase is related to the type, particle size distribution in base fluid and, concentration of nanoparticles. Aluminum oxide nanoparticle was found to have the greatest effect on thermal properties of water. For example, only 0.05 wt.% of this nanoparticle, improves the alteration in temperature of water for around 100%. This change can affect the oil recovery and changed it from 37% to more than 40% under MWAGD. Hence, our experiments showed that besides other applications of nanotechnology in enhance oil recovery, heavy oil recovery can also be affected by nanomaterials.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 9736-9746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Li ◽  
Yigang Liu ◽  
Qiuxia Wang ◽  
Yugui Han ◽  
Minggang Wang ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document