Effect of Steam Quality on Extra-Heavy Crude Oil Upgrading and Oil Recovery Assisted with PdO and NiO-Functionalized Al2O3 Nanoparticles

Abstract

This work focuses on evaluating the effect of the steam quality on the upgrading and recovering extra-heavy crude oil in the presence and absence of two nanofluids. The nanofluids AlNi1 and AlNi1Pd1 consist of 500 mg·L−1 of alumina doped with 1.0% in mass fraction of Ni (AlNi1) and alumina doped with 1.0% in mass fraction of Ni and Pd (AlNi1Pd1), respectively, and 1000 mg·L−1 of tween 80 surfactant. Displacement tests are done in different stages, including (i) basic characterization, (ii) waterflooding, (iii) steam injection at 0.5 quality, (iv) steam injection at 1.0 quality, (v) batch injection of nanofluids, and (vi) steam injection after nanofluid injection at 0.5 and 1.0 qualities. The steam injection is realized at 210 °C, the reservoir temperature is fixed at 80 °C, and pore and overburden pressure at 1.03 MPa (150 psi) and 5.51 MPa (800 psi), respectively. After the steam injection at 0.5 and 1.0 quality, oil recovery is increased 3.0% and 7.0%, respectively, regarding the waterflooding stage, and no significant upgrade in crude oil is observed. Then, during the steam injection with nanoparticles, the AlNi1 and AlNi1Pd1 increase the oil recovery by 20.0% and 13.0% at 0.5 steam quality. Meanwhile, when steam is injected at 1.0 quality for both nanoparticles evaluated, no incremental oil is produced. The crude oil is highly upgraded for the AlNi1Pd1 system, reducing oil viscosity 99%, increasing the American Petroleum Institute (API)° from 6.9° to 13.3°, and reducing asphaltene content 50% at 0.5 quality. It is expected that this work will eventually help understand the appropriate conditions in which nanoparticles should be injected in a steam injection process to improve its efficiency in terms of oil recovery and crude oil quality.

A Review on the Role of Amorphous Aluminum Compounds in Catalysis: Avenues of Investigation and Potential Application in Petrochemistry and Oil Refining

“…There are many methods for the synthesis of aluminum hydroxides, such as mechanochemical and thermochemical activation, precipitation, calcination of aluminum salts, hydrothermal treatment of aluminum oxides and hydroxides, and hydrolysis of organoaluminium compounds. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, which are described in detail in numerous scientific papers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, the problem of formation of amorphous alumina compounds, which inevitably arise during the synthesis by all the given methods except hydrothermal treatment, has not yet been sufficiently investigated.…”

“…At T > 50 • C hydrolysis is carried out immediately after the first stage, i.e., the amount of main salts in the precipitates is not stabilized [1,3,21]. The existence of the second stage of hydrolysis, i.e., the stability of the main salts under certain conditions in the precipitate is explained by the fact that the structure of the main salts [Al 4 O 2 (OH) 7+x (NO 3 ) am in the sediment is constant and equal to the concentration of hydroxyl ions in the environment [1,2,5,15,22]. At the same time, the depth of polymerization is increased, forming one or another crystalline aluminum hydroxide.…”

“…Aluminum oxide is widely used in the global petrochemical industry due to the diverse physical and chemical properties of its surface formed during synthesis. It is an adsorbent-catalyst and also a catalyst support for various petrochemical and oil refining processes [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Alumina is used as a support for oxide catalysts applied in the neutralization of industrial emissions, as well as in hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, reforming, and hydrotreating catalysts, where the active components are Cr, Mo, Ni, W oxides or metals (Pt, Pd, Ni, etc.)…”

“…Alumina is used as a support for oxide catalysts applied in the neutralization of industrial emissions, as well as in hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, reforming, and hydrotreating catalysts, where the active components are Cr, Mo, Ni, W oxides or metals (Pt, Pd, Ni, etc.) [2][3][4]6,7]. In the hydrogenation processes, in case of nickel catalysts, the thermal stability of alumina increases up to 600-700 • C which significantly expands the range of its applications [5].…”

“…Aluminum oxide is widely used in petroleum chemistry and oil refining [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The most commonly used aluminum oxide is γ-Al 2 O 3 as a catalyst or a catalyst support.…”