In Situ Upgrading Heavy Oil by Aquathermolytic Treatment Under Steam Injection Conditions

Abstract

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractAquathermolytic technology that involves upgrading heavy oil using chemical additives is introduced in this paper. Laboratory experiments were carried out under steam injection conditions to investigate catalysis of some metal species and synergetic effect of catalyst and hydrogen donor on aquathermolysis of Liaohe and Shengli heavy oils. As a result, significant reduction in viscosity and contents of asphaltene and resin was obtained, thus heavy oils were upgraded greatly. Then the mechanism of aquahtermolysis is discussed further. Additionally, the field test in Liaohe Oifield is introduced. The future is suggested in the end.

Heavy Oil Upgrading and Enhanced Recovery in a Steam Injection Process Assisted by NiO- and PdO-Functionalized SiO2 Nanoparticulated Catalysts

“…The latter (i.e., cold processes) are employed for improving the crude oil mobility by dilution or destabilization of large amount of crude oil components in the reservoir by injecting solvents for viscosity reduction [14,15]. On the other hand, the thermal enhanced oil recovery techniques for heavy oil upgrading include aquathermolysis [16][17][18], pyrolysis-also called thermal cracking or thermolysis [19][20][21][22]-combustion processes [23,24] and low-temperature oxidation [25,26]. Nevertheless, most of these techniques do not exceed the 50% of oil recovery [27][28][29].…”

Kinetics and mechanisms of the catalytic thermal cracking of asphaltenes adsorbed on supported nanoparticles

“…These techniques include thermal processes, such as in situ combustion and steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) (Cavallaro et al 2008;Moore et al 1999;Greaves et al 2001;Kumar et al 2011;Kapadia et al 2010;Speight 1970;Jiang et al 2005;Fan et al 2004;Maity et al 2010), and cold techniques, such as treatments using diluents like natural gas condensate (Luo et al 2007a, b;James et al 2008;Castro et al 2011;Cavallaro et al 2005). The latter (i.e., cold process) is used to improve the crude oil by dilution or destabilization, and deposition of the asphaltene components in the reservoir by injecting solvents that have a direct impact on viscosity reduction (Luo et al 2007b;Cavallaro et al 2005).…”

“…The latter (i.e., cold process) is used to improve the crude oil by dilution or destabilization, and deposition of the asphaltene components in the reservoir by injecting solvents that have a direct impact on viscosity reduction (Luo et al 2007b;Cavallaro et al 2005). The more frequently employed thermal techniques for heavy oil upgrading address breaking the heavier compounds of oil using combustion processes (Moore et al 1999;Cavallaro et al 2008), low-temperature oxidation (Xu et al 2000;Wichert et al 1995), aquathermolysis (Jiang et al 2005;Fan et al 2004;Maity et al 2010), and pyrolysis, also called thermal cracking or thermolysis (Speight 1970;Kumar et al 2011;Monin and Audibert 1988;Nassar et al 2013a). However, most of these techniques do not exceed 20 %-25 % oil recovery or 50 % for the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process (Butler 1998;Nasr et al 2003;Hashemi et al 2013).…”

Heavy Oil Upgrading in the Presence of Water

“…В ряде работ показана эффективность водорастворимых предшественников катализатора в процессе акватермолиза нефтей в статическом режиме при температуре 240 ºС и различном времени проведения процесса (24, 72 ч) [36,37]. В [36] Использование муравьиной кислоты и СО основано на образовании водорода in situ по реакции водяного газа (4) либо на разложении муравьиной кислоты по реакциям (5)-…”