Emulsification and emulsion flow in thermal recovery operations with a focus on SAGD operations: A critical review

Velayati, Arian; Nouri, Alireza

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117141

Cited by 35 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Overseas SAGD projects have mainly been based on the dual horizontal well combination model (Figure 2). e burial depth of the reservoir is less than 500 m, and the thickness of the reservoir is generally greater than 15 m [18].…”

Section: Steam-assisted Gravity Drainagementioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Research Status of Heavy Oil Enhanced Oil Recovery

2022

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Heavy oil is an important part of petroleum hydrocarbon energy. With the depletion of conventional crude oil reserves, successful and efficient exploitation of heavy oil resources is becoming increasingly important. This article focuses on the nine relatively mature heavy oil development technologies from the perspectives of the level of understanding of the mechanism and the scale of the mining field: steam huff and puff, steam flooding, steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), in situ combustion, thermochemical combined flooding, multicomponent thermal fluid, polymer flooding, chemical viscosity reduction development, and microbial oil recovery, which are divided into two technical categories: thermal recovery and cold recovery development. The basic development principles are explained, and application examples of the two categories of techniques are provided. It is pointed out that thermal compounding, cold mining development, and nanomaterial applications will be the three development trends in heavy oil development.

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Section: Steam-assisted Gravity Drainagementioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Research Status of Heavy Oil Enhanced Oil Recovery

2022

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“…Wang et al (2020) measured a charge density of a reverse emulsion breaker to find a suitable agent to break emulsion in SAGD operation conditions . Velayati and Nouri in 2020 presented a review on emulsification and emulsion flow during a SAGD process, which covered emulsification mechanisms, emulsion stability, emulsion properties, and controlling factors on emulsion formation …”

Section: Steam-assisted Gravity Drainage (Sagd)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…140 Velayati and Nouri in 2020 presented a review on emulsification and emulsion flow during a SAGD process, which covered emulsification mechanisms, emulsion stability, emulsion properties, and controlling factors on emulsion formation. 141 Steam injection is an effective way to reduce oil viscosity, but it also raises the reservoir temperature leading to H 2 S and CO 2 generation by aquathermolysis. Jia et al (2016) experimentally measured the amounts of generated H 2 S and CO 2 and revealed that a rising temperature promoted gas generation.…”

Section: ■ Css Follow-up Processes and Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Review of Reservoir Simulation Applications in Key Thermal Recovery Processes: Lessons, Opportunities, and Challenges

Yang

Nie

et al. 2021

Energy Fuels

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After a cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) process achieved accidental success in recovering heavy oil resources in the 1960s, thermal recovery processes started to unlock the door of in situ recovery of heavy oil and bitumen resources. After five decades of development, many thermal recovery processes have been developed, among which CSS and steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) are two main commercialized processes. With the support of laboratory and field data, reservoir simulation can help engineers and researchers to understand recovery mechanisms, optimize operations, and forecast performance of either existing or emerging processes. In this paper, we present a critical review of applications of reservoir simulation on CSS, CSS follow-ups (steamflooding, liquid addition to steam for enhancing recovery (LASER), and in situ combustion), SAGD, solvent-assisted SAGD, and SAGD noncondensable gas (NCG) coinjection processes. This review and the analyses of these processes provide not only their clarifications from thermal simulation lessons but also an extensive summary of challenges still faced by industry. Moreover, they shed light on future research directions and opportunities for thermal recovery processes.

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“…Studies show that asphaltenes precipitate into solids and deposit either due to the change in the field conditions (change in pressure and temperature) or the oil composition. − Many problems have been linked to the precipitation of asphaltenes in both upstream and downstream facilities in the oil industry . Moreover, the formation of crude emulsions is thought to be mainly a result of natural emulsifiers, such as asphaltenes in the oil reservoir. − …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Asphaltene in Stability of Water-in-Oil Model Emulsions: The Effects of Oil Composition and Size of the Aggregates and Droplets

Velayati

Nouri

2021

Energy Fuels

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Water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions are the most common type of emulsions handled in petroleum processes. It is thought that the field emulsions are primarily stabilized by asphaltene–resin micelles, and several research studies have examined the stability mechanisms of asphaltene in crude emulsions. However, there are still plenty of research gaps and unanswered questions in this area due to the complexity of the problem and difficulty of access and crude emulsion processing. These challenges can be addressed by investigating the effect of asphaltene on model emulsions’ kinetic stability. This study introduces a model W/O emulsion prepared by a new stabilizer (gilsonite) that contains asphaltenes and resins in combination with a non-ionic surfactant (Span 83). The colloidal characterization of the asphaltene aggregates in the mineral oil and oil blend of toluene and mineral oil was carried out. The size of the asphaltene aggregates in the mineral oil was found to increase with the added gilsonite concentration because of asphaltene precipitation and the process of smaller aggregates clumping together, forming flocs. Gilsonite was also found to precipitate and stabilize the W/O emulsions with the mineral oil as the external phase where the asphaltene precipitation was the most severe. The emulsions’ least kinetic stability was measured when toluene was added in the oil blend (50% volume fraction), where 100% water phase separation was observed with 0.25% gilsonite concentration. However, the dilute emulsion (10% water content in the emulsion) samples with 25% toluene revealed higher stability in terms of water phase separation than the case with 12.5% toluene with 20.83% less water separation in a 3 day storage period. This observation contradicts the expected outcome in a thermodynamic perspective where the W/O emulsion stability is thought to be merely dependent on asphaltene precipitation. The dilute emulsion with 12.5% toluene contained asphaltene aggregates larger than the emulsion droplets, which cannot contribute to the stability process. The ratio of the mean aggregate size to the mean droplet size was 133% larger for the dilute emulsion with a smaller fraction of toluene in the oil blend for this case. Therefore, the aggregates’ size to droplet size misalignment resulted in less stability for this emulsion than for the emulsion with higher aromaticity of the oil blend despite the very high precipitation rate. This paper presents observations of the effects of the asphaltene precipitation rate, size of the aggregates, and size distribution of the emulsion droplets on the model W/O emulsions’ stability. The significance of the results is in revealing the importance of integrating the thermodynamical and colloidal viewpoints to describe the role of asphaltene in stabilizing emulsions. This approach leads to the conclusion that besides asphaltene precipitation, the aggregate size distribution in relation to the size of the emulsion droplets is a critical factor in stabilizing the emulsions. Results presented in thi...

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Emulsification and emulsion flow in thermal recovery operations with a focus on SAGD operations: A critical review

Cited by 35 publications

References 56 publications

Development and Research Status of Heavy Oil Enhanced Oil Recovery

Development and Research Status of Heavy Oil Enhanced Oil Recovery

A Critical Review of Reservoir Simulation Applications in Key Thermal Recovery Processes: Lessons, Opportunities, and Challenges

Role of Asphaltene in Stability of Water-in-Oil Model Emulsions: The Effects of Oil Composition and Size of the Aggregates and Droplets

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