Numerical simulation of solvent and water assisted electrical heating of oil sands including aquathermolysis and thermal cracking reactions

Abstract

Simulations of bitumen recovery using solvent‐ and water‐assisted electrical heating of oil sands are presented to evaluate the process and to study gas generation. Aquathermolysis and thermal cracking and dissolution of acid‐gases in water are included. Steam‐assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is also simulated for comparison. Results show that gas generation negatively impacts SAGD. However, in electrical heating dissolution of gases into solvent weakens their negative impact. Results indicate that SAGD generates a larger gas volume than electrical heating. In both processes, methane is found to be the major species in the produced gas and H2S concentration can reach high values. While the effect of acid–gas solubility in water on oil recovery is not evident its effect on generated gas volume is significant. Simulation results demonstrate that electrical heating is more energy efficient than SAGD. These results find application in design of experiments and pilot and field‐scale implementation of the process. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 4243–4258, 2017

The Prospect of Electrical Enhanced Oil Recovery for Heavy Oil: A Review

“…ESEIEH is a heating method using solvents such as propane and butane applied in the Couldadian-oil sands that is commonly designed for horizontal well, which radiofrequency and electromagnetic waves are a combination to result in heat. Laricina, Nexen, and Suncor develop ESEISEH projects using an antenna in the reservoir that emits to raise the temperature up to 50℃ (120oF) (Abraham et al, 2016;Hassanzadeh et al, 2017). Faradonbeh et al (2016) purposed a method of electrical heating using solvent and water as a fluid transfer to target heat into the formation for in-situ extraction of bitumen using downhole electrical heating.…”

Electrical Heating for Heavy Oil: Past, Current, and Future Prospect

“…a method of ESEIEH is to combine heating using RF-EM waves and solvents such as propane and butane used in the Canadian-oil sands which commonly is designed for horizontal well. The ESEISEH is developed by three companies, Laricina Energy, Nexen, and Suncor Energy that is running an antenna underground that emits to raise temperature up to 50℃ (120 o F) [98], [99].…”

Ethyl acetate as a bio‐based solvent to reduce energy intensity and CO2 emissions of in situ bitumen recovery

“…The summary of the reservoir model can be found in Table . Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA) and Underground Test Facility (UTF) relative permeability curves have been used in simulations …”