Measurements of Molecular Diffusion Coefficients of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Propane in Heavy Oil under Reservoir Conditions

Tharanivasan, Asok Kumar; Yang, Chaodong; Gu, Yongan

doi:10.1021/ef060080d

Cited by 160 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The propane molecular diffusion coefficient in this heavy oil, D = 7.9 × 10 −6 cm 2 /s at T = 23.9 • C, was obtained by using the pressure decay method (Tharanivasan et al 2006). In addition, the apparent propane molecular diffusion coefficient as defined in Eq.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analytical Model for Determination of the Solvent Convective Dispersion Coefficient in the Vapor Extraction Heavy Oil Recovery Process

Derakhshanfar

2011

Transp Porous Med

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In this article, a new model is developed to determine the solvent convective dispersion coefficient in a solvent vapor extraction (VAPEX) heavy oil recovery process. It is assumed that solvent mass transfer by convective dispersion takes place along the transition zone between the solvent chamber and untouched heavy oil, whereas solvent mass transfer by molecular diffusion occurs in the direction normal to the transition zone. It is also assumed that the solvent-diluted heavy oil gravity drainage through the transition zone has a linear or quadratic velocity profile in order to obtain analytical solutions of the solvent convective dispersion coefficients for the solvent chamber spreading and falling phases. As a result, this analytical model correlates the solvent convective dispersion coefficient to the maximum apparent oil gravity drainage velocity at the interface between the solvent chamber and transition zone, solvent molecular diffusion coefficient, transition-zone thickness, and porosity of the porous medium. To determine the solvent convective dispersion coefficient, the maximum apparent oil gravity drainage velocity is calculated by using Darcy's law and the transition-zone thickness is obtained either from a previous study or by using a time similarity between the solvent molecular diffusion and oil gravity drainage. It is found that such a determined solvent convective dispersion coefficient is two to five orders larger than the solvent molecular diffusion coefficient, depending on the detailed experimental conditions of a specific VAPEX test. List of Symbols cSolvent mass fraction in the solvent-diluted heavy oil (g solvent/g heavy oil) C max Maximum solvent volume concentration at the interface between the solvent chamber and transition zone (vol.%) D Solvent molecular diffusion coefficient (m 2 /s) D app Apparent solvent molecular diffusion coefficient along x-axis (m 2 /s) D x Apparent solvent molecular diffusion coefficient along x-axis (m 2 /s) D y Solvent convective dispersion coefficient along y-axis (m 2 /s) g Local gravitational acceleration (m/s 2 ) H VAPEX physical model height (m) J x Solvent mass flux by molecular diffusion along x-axis (kg/m 2 s) J y Solvent mass flux by convective dispersion along y-axis (kg/m 2 s) k Absolute permeability of the VAPEX physical model (m 2 ) L VAPEX physical model length (m) P Constant operating pressure during the VAPEX test (kPa) P v Propane vapor pressure at T = 20.8 • C (kPa) Q s Solvent mass flow rate (kg/s) T Constant operating temperature during the VAPEX testInterstitial gravity drainage velocity of the solvent-diluted heavy oil along the transition zone (m/s) v ave Average apparent gravity drainage velocity of the solvent-diluted heavy oil along the transition zone (m/s) v max Maximum apparent gravity drainage velocity of the most diluted heavy oil at the interface between the solvent chamber and transition zone (m/s) xx-coordinate (m) y y-coordinate (m)Greek Symbols δ Transition-zone thickness (m) μ o Viscosity of the heavy oil (Pa s) μ o (C ma...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analytical Model for Determination of the Solvent Convective Dispersion Coefficient in the Vapor Extraction Heavy Oil Recovery Process

Derakhshanfar

2011

Transp Porous Med

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“…Thirdly, there are a series of helical mixing units within a cylindrical tube. Though fluid mixing process is the process of molecular diffusion, it can still be subdivided into following three categories according to the *Corresponding author, E-mail: hudedong@126.com mechanism: the main convection, vortex movement and molecular diffusion [14][15][16]. The fluid flows through the mixing unit will form radial velocity, main convection and vortex movement, so the fluids will be mixed uniformly.…”

Section: The Structure Design Of Gas Mixermentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Numerical Simulation of a Gas Mixer

Zhang

Guo

et al. 2015

MAPAN

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A high precision gas mixer used to mix gases of small flow rapidly and uniformly was proposed in this paper. Nine simulation schemes were proposed based on orthogonal test. There were four factors including dilute gas flow rate, the length of mixing tube, the diameter of the mixing chamber and the width of the mixing chamber in orthogonal test and each factor had three levels. The numerical simulation was carried out to explore the relationship of the flow field and the four factors and to calculate the concentration of carbon monoxide at the mixer's outlet. The primary factor that affected the mixing effectiveness was found out by means of range analysis. The heterogeneous degree of the distribution of carbon monoxide concentration at the mixer's outlet was smaller than 0.002 under different conditions. The results reached uniform micromixing in engineering and met the requirement of measurement and detection.

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“…Comparing with other optimization methods, Genetic Algorithm has the advantage of global searching and escaping from a local optimization. The objective function used to guide the optimization process is the same as the one used by Tharanivasan et al [22]:…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…x H 2 S = −0.0148T + 6.7255 R 2 = 0.9965 (22) Later on, Marriott et al [9] showed that the terms at the left hand side of Eqs. (4) and (5) were independent of the headspace H 2 S partial pressure.…”

Section: Numerical Optimizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The diffusion coefficient of H2S in liquid sulfur

et al. 2011

Fluid Phase Equilibria

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Measurements of Molecular Diffusion Coefficients of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Propane in Heavy Oil under Reservoir Conditions

Abstract: R e p r o d u c e d with p e r m issio n o f th e co p y r ig h t o w n e r . F u rth er rep ro d u ctio n p roh ib ited w ith o u t p e r m issio n .

Cited by 160 publications

References 20 publications

An Analytical Model for Determination of the Solvent Convective Dispersion Coefficient in the Vapor Extraction Heavy Oil Recovery Process

An Analytical Model for Determination of the Solvent Convective Dispersion Coefficient in the Vapor Extraction Heavy Oil Recovery Process

Design and Numerical Simulation of a Gas Mixer

The diffusion coefficient of H2S in liquid sulfur

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