Comparative evaluation on the thermal behaviors and kinetics of combustion of heavy crude oil and its SARA fractions

Zhao, Shuai; Pu, Wanfen; Sun, B.-S.; Gu, Fei; Wang, Liangliang

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2018.11.014

Cited by 102 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Many variables, such as optimum fuel laydown ahead of the combustion front, optimum pre-heating prior to air injection, continuous air injection, etc., have been identified as affecting the stability of combustion front propagation and sustenance in the THAI process. The main advantages of the THAI process, in situ combustion, and the conditions for process stability are summarized elsewhere (Turta and Singhal 2004;Xia et al 2005;Greaves et al 2008;Gutierrez et al 2009;Liang et al 2012;Rabiu Ado et al 2017;Rahnema et al 2017;Rabiu Ado et al 2018;Zhao et al 2018;Chen et al 2019;Zhao et al 2019). Furthermore, the THAI process has been the subject of detailed numerical simulations both at laboratory scale and at field scale (Rabiu Ado et al 2017, 2018Ado et al 2019;Ado 2019Ado , 2020a.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of reservoir pay thickness on the performance of the THAI heavy oil and bitumen upgrading and production process

Ado

2020

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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The increasing energy demand has to be met while we transitioned to a decarbonized energy future. Heavy oil and bitumen reserves are urgently needed to be developed to ensure that a smooth transition is provided. In this work, field-scale kinetics parameters are used to study the effect of reservoir pay thickness on the performance of toe-to-heel air injection (THAI) process. Air was injected at constant rate into three different models with the thicknesses of 24 m, 16 m, and 8 m, respectively. The oil produced is slightly affected by the reservoir thickness. It is found that the lower the reservoir thickness, the larger the cumulative air-to-oil ratio (cAOR), indicating that heat loss increases with the decrease in the reservoir thickness. This trend is similar to steam-based processes. At constant air injection flux, it is found that both the cumulative oil produced and the cAOR decrease with the decrease in the reservoir thicknesses. This decrease is attributed to the decrease in the rate of heat generation in the thinner reservoirs, which in turn results in lower combustion zone temperature and thus lower temperature gradients between the reservoir and the overburden and the reservoir and the underburden. Consequently, a more general conclusion is that decreasing the air injection rate by the same factor the reservoir thickness is decreased (i.e. keeping the air injection flux constant) results in a more economical THAI process operation compared to when the air injection rate is kept constant (i.e. allowing increase in air injection flux).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of reservoir pay thickness on the performance of the THAI heavy oil and bitumen upgrading and production process

Ado

2020

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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“…More fuel is consumed and more heat is released. Therefore, the higher the viscosity of the oil is, the higher the peak temperature of the fire flooding is and the higher the fuel consumption is [18][19][20].…”

Section: Preignitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of Displacement Characteristics of Fire Flooding in Different Viscosity Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Liu¹,

Liu²,

Zhao

et al. 2021

Geofluids

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A field test in the Xinjiang oilfield in China shows that the viscosity of heavy oil has a certain influence on the combustion dynamics and injection-production performance of fire flooding. The experiment in this study uses a one-dimensional combustion tube to study the temperature, gas composition, and air injection pressure and the production performance of the fire flooding of heavy oil with different viscosities. The results show that the oil viscosities of 1180–22500 mPa·s can achieve stable combustion, and the O2 content of the gas produced during the stable combustion stage is <0.5%. The higher the viscosity of the heavy oil, the higher the temperature in the burned zone and the smaller the range of the temperature increase in the unburned zone. The air injection pressure will increase rapidly until a stable seepage channel is formed, and then, it will drop to a level close to the formation pressure. High-viscosity heavy oil requires a higher air injection pressure and will remain in the high-pressure stage for a longer period of time. Low-viscosity heavy oil has a low water cut in the early stage of fire flooding, a large oil production rate, and a low and stable air–oil ratio. The water cut of high-viscosity heavy oil increases rapidly in the early stage of fire flooding and then decreases gradually, so a good air–oil ratio can only be obtained in the middle and late stages of fire flooding. Thus, fire flooding may be more suitable for application in common heavy oil and some extra heavy oil reservoirs with lower viscosities.

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“…However, the conventional ISC suffers from excessive pressure build up due to it is long distance displacement nature, gravity segregation and gas override. The toe-to-teel air injection (THAI) process has been shown, at laboratory scale, during field trails and at semi-commercial scale, to overcome all the disadvantages of the conventional ISC process (Chen et al, 2019;Greaves et al, 2008;Gutierrez et al, 2009;Liang et al, 2012;Rabiu Ado et al, 2018Rahnema et al, 2017;Turta and Singhal, 2004;Xia et al, 2005;Zhao et al, 2019Zhao et al, , 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving heavy oil production rates in THAI process using wells configured in a staggered line drive (SLD) instead of in a direct line drive (DLD) configuration: detailed simulation investigations

Ado

2021

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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As governments around the world prepare for a transition period to a decarbonised energy and economic future, petroleum is needed to smoothen that transition. Based on the analysis of the International Energy Agency’s 2020 projections, around 770 billion barrels of oil are required to meet demand from now to 2040. However, according to British Petroleum’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2020, as at the end of 2019, the global total reserves of recoverable conventional and unconventional oils is approximately 1734 billion barrels. Out of that, the conventional easy-to-produce light oil accounts for only 30% (i.e. accounts for only 520.2 billion barrels). Therefore, the remaining 249.8 billion barrels of oil needed to satisfy demand up to 2040 must come from unconventional oils, namely heavy oils and bitumen. However, these unconventional resources are very difficult to produce and the current production methods have very high environmental footprints. Consequently, in accordance with climate crisis mitigations, the vast reserves of the virtually unexploited heavy oils and bitumen must be developed using advanced and greener extraction technologies, such as the yet-to-be-fully-understood THAI process which provides partial upgrading of heavy oil/bitumen via in situ combustion. Using validated numerical models which are developed using the CMG’s reservoir thermal simulator, the STARS, which is also used in this study, field scale reservoir simulations of the THAI process were performed with the wells arranged in staggered line drive (SLD) and direct line drive (DLD). Over the 834 days of operating time, the cumulative oil recovery in SLD is 32% of oil originally in place (OOIP) which is equivalent to 26,100 m3 whilst that in DLD is 27% OOIP. This shows that more oil (i.e. an additional 5% OOIP) was cumulatively recovered in SLD compared to in DLD model. It is found that smaller reservoir volume was swept by the combustion front in DLD and thus making the heat-affected reservoir volume smaller than that in SLD model. Furthermore, in DLD, due to the nearness of the injector well to the toe of the horizontal producer (HP) well, oxygen production began much earlier, compared to in the SLD. It is also found that the temperature of the mobile oil zone is higher in the SLD model compared to that in the DLD model. This implies that higher quality oil is produced when the wells are configured in the SLD pattern. Therefore, this first-of-a-kind work has shown that SLD arrangement is far more efficient, safer, and produces higher quality oil than DLD pattern and that actual process engineering designs should use SLD wells configuration.

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Comparative evaluation on the thermal behaviors and kinetics of combustion of heavy crude oil and its SARA fractions

Cited by 102 publications

References 44 publications

Effect of reservoir pay thickness on the performance of the THAI heavy oil and bitumen upgrading and production process

Effect of reservoir pay thickness on the performance of the THAI heavy oil and bitumen upgrading and production process

Study of Displacement Characteristics of Fire Flooding in Different Viscosity Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Improving heavy oil production rates in THAI process using wells configured in a staggered line drive (SLD) instead of in a direct line drive (DLD) configuration: detailed simulation investigations

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