Use of Direct Electrical Current for Increasing the Flow Rate of Reservoir Fluids During Petroleum Recovery

Amba, Samridhi; Chilingar, George V.; Beeson, Carrol M.

doi:10.2118/64-01-02

Cited by 51 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…If an electric potential is applied across the core, the electroosmotic flow rate of the brine will increase as the electric field will drive the cations in the mobile part of the double layer towards the cathode. However, the electroosmotic permeability (K e ) is mainly dependent on zeta potential unlike hydrodynamic permeability, which is mainly dependent on pore size distribution [19,[34][35]. As we are only interested experimentally to demonstrate the increase in hydraulic permeability, the electroosmotic permeability can be neglected experimentally leading to the Darcy's fluid flow law (equation -3) and permeability enhancement (equation -4) [19,[36][37].…”

Section: Ek Low-concentration Acid Ior (Ek Lca-ior)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrokinetic Driven Low-Concentration Acid Improved Oil Recovery in Abu Dhabi Tight Carbonate Reservoirs

Ansari¹,

Haroun²,

Rahman³

et al. 2015

Electrochimica Acta

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Ek Low-concentration Acid Ior (Ek Lca-ior)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrokinetic Driven Low-Concentration Acid Improved Oil Recovery in Abu Dhabi Tight Carbonate Reservoirs

Ansari¹,

Haroun²,

Rahman³

et al. 2015

Electrochimica Acta

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…This can be true for a shallow reservoir because of heat lost across the reservoir or a deep reservoir because of high heat lost along the wellbore (Bogdanov et al 2011). To overcome these problems, electrical-low-frequency Joule heating of a reservoir was presented by Amba et al (1964).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Application of Electrical-Joule-Heating Simulator for Heavy-Oil Reservoirs

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the electrical-Joule-heating process, the reservoirs are heated in situ by dissipation of electrical energy to reduce the viscosity of oil. In principle, electrical current passes through the reservoir fluids mostly because of the electrical conductivity of saturated fluids such as saline water. The flow of electrical current through the reservoir raises the heat in the reservoir and thereby dramatically reduces the oil viscosity.In this process, electrical current can flow between electricalpotential sources (electrodes) in wells, and then electrical energy is dissipated to generate the heat. Therefore, the regions around the electrodes in (or around) the wells are extremely heated. Because the wells act as line sources for the electrical potential, greater heating takes place near the wellbore, causing possible vaporization of water in that region. Because steam has very-low electrical conductivity, it can reduce the efficiency of this process significantly. In this process electrical conductivity plays a very important role. To increase efficiency of this type of heating process, the presence of optimum saline-water saturation is an essential factor.To model the electrical Joule heating in the presence of multiphase-fluid flow, we use three Maxwell classical electromagnetism equations. These equations are simplified and assumed for low frequency to obtain the conservation of the electrical-current equation and Ohm's law. The conservation of electrical current and Ohm's law are implemented by use of a finite-difference method in a four-phase chemical-flooding reservoir simulator (UTCHEM 2011.7). The Joule-heating rate caused by dissipation of electrical energy is calculated and added to the energy equation as a source term.The formulation and implementation of electrical heating are validated against a reference analytical solution and verified with a reservoir simulator. A typical-reservoir model is built, and constant electrical potential with alternating current is applied to the model to study the efficiency of the electrical-heating process properly. The efficiency of this process is evaluated in the presence of water-saturated fractures and evaporation effect. Results illustrate that water saturation in the presence of fractures and electrical conductivity of saturated rock have an important effect on the Joule-heating process. The importance of the fractures saturated by saline water and operation of such processes below the boiling point are key findings in this paper to obtain high recovery in comparison with other conventional-thermal-recovery methods.

show abstract

“…This can be true for a shallow reservoir due to heat lost across the reservoir or a deep reservoir due to high heat lost along the wellbore (Bogdanov et al, 2011). In order to overcome to these above problems, electrical low frequency joule's heating of a reservoir was presented by Amba et al, (1964). This method has been proposed to improve recovery of highly viscous oil and heavy oil with API less than 20.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Electrical Joule's Heating Simulation for Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Lashgari

Delshad

Sepehrnoori

et al. 2014

Day 3 Thu, June 12, 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the electrical joule's heating process, the reservoirs are heated in situ by electrical energy to reduce the viscosity. In principle, electrical current passes through the reservoir fluids due mostly to the electrical conductivity of saturated fluids such as saline water. The flow of electrical current through the reservoir leads the heat in the reservoir and thereby drastically reduces the oil viscosity.In this process, electrical current can flow between electrical potential sources (wells) and generate the joule's heat. Therefore, the regions around the electrodes in (or around) the wells are extremely heated. Because the wells act as line sources for the electrical potential, greater heating takes place near the wellbore causing possible vaporization of water in that region. Since steam has very low electrical conductivity, it can reduce the efficiency of this process significantly. In this process electrical conductivity plays a very important role. In order to increase efficiency of this type of heating process, the presence of optimum saline water saturation is an essential design factor.In order to simulate a challenging multiphysics problem, we use three Maxwell classical electromagnetism equations. These equations are simplified and assumed for low frequency to obtain the conservation of electrical current equation and Ohm's law. The conservation of electrical current and Ohm's law are implemented using a finite difference method in a four phase chemical flooding reservoir simulator (UTCHEM). The joule's heating rate due to electrical current is calculated and added as an energy source to the energy balance equation.A typical reservoir model is built and constant electrical potential with alternating current (AC) is applied to this model to study the efficiency of the electrical joule's heating process in the presence of water saturated fracture and evaluate this efficiency at, above, and/or below the water boiling point. Results illustrate that water saturation in the presence of fracture and electrical conductivity of saturated rock have an important effect on the joule's heating process. In this paper, we show that since, steam is a non-conductive electrical phase, this process should be designed to keep the temperature below the boiling point by circulating water. This can prevent the evaporation leading to an increase in the process efficiency.Electrical conductivity of water can also be easily increased by injecting high salinity water into the reservoir and increasing the amount of heat substantially. This is highly beneficial and the main advantage of the electrical joule's heating process that can obtain high recovery in comparison to other thermal recovery methods. In this paper the understanding of the influence of saline water and steam forming is a key finding in order to economically optimize the process to unlock heavy oil reservoirs.

show abstract

Use of Direct Electrical Current for Increasing the Flow Rate of Reservoir Fluids During Petroleum Recovery

Cited by 51 publications

References 0 publications

Electrokinetic Driven Low-Concentration Acid Improved Oil Recovery in Abu Dhabi Tight Carbonate Reservoirs

Electrokinetic Driven Low-Concentration Acid Improved Oil Recovery in Abu Dhabi Tight Carbonate Reservoirs

Development and Application of Electrical-Joule-Heating Simulator for Heavy-Oil Reservoirs

Development of Electrical Joule's Heating Simulation for Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About