Laboratory Two-Dimensional Experimental Simulation of Catalytic in Situ Upgrading

Abstract

Since 2002, the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) production technique has had a skyrocketing growth in the province of Alberta, increasing production from 31,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2002 up to 577,000 bpd by 2013. SAGD is a highly energy intensive method that consumes large quantities of natural gas and water for the production of steam. Once heavy oils are extracted – via SAGD – they must meet pipeline specifications in order to be commercialized, thus dilution with a higher value hydrocarbon or invest in a long-term upgrading project. One way of optimizing and integrating the extraction and upgrading of heavy oils is proposed with the development of the Dense Hot Fluid Injection (DHFI) process, a catalytic in situ upgrading technology. The process targets the substitution – at least partially – of steam by a high heat capacity fluid carrying to the reservoir heat, dispersed nanocatalyst, and hydrogen in order to generate a more competitive oil sand product. It targets the conversion of the vacuum residue (VR) fraction and generates an upgraded synthetic crude oil (SCO) with no vacuum residue and with pipeline transportable viscosity. In this work a two-dimensional bench scale plant is used for the experimental simulation of production and upgrading of an Athabasca type reservoir via DHFI processing. The arrangement is designed to study the heat distribution and oil production from a system with different permeabilities. VR is injected at different residence times to study its conversion levels, and a postmortem product mapping is performed to the residual oil left in the sand packed media. Results confirmed that important upgrading occurs at 500 psi, 350 °C, and hydrogen injection ratios of 300 sccm H2/cc VR. Under the most severe studied case, products reached API gravities of 16°API from a feedstock of 2.4°API. Extremely light hydrocarbons were found within high permeable areas of the rig, while the thermal distribution of the process confirmed the differences between steam injection, presenting “V” type chambers, and dense fluid injection with elliptical shape distributions.

Deposition of Dispersed Nanoparticles in Porous Media Similar to Oil Sands. Effect of Temperature and Residence Time

“…The feasibility of introducing metallic nanoparticles into the reservoir has been the subject of several studies, − where it has been proven that the particles attach to the sand with no significant reduction of the formation permeability. , The catalytic activity of these particles containing Ni, Mo, and W has also been proven, with promising results regarding upgrading levels and enhanced bitumen recovery. ,− …”

“…Metallic nanoparticles deposition has been studied handling variables such as permeability, temperature, flow rate, and nature of the dispersion media. ,,, The success of the deposition process so far is based on high particles retention, as determined by a balance of the metals between the feed and the effluent liquid product. However, this criterion describes only partially the deposition process, not accounting for the particles size and morphology.…”

In‐situ upgrading of heavy oil using nano‐catalysts: A computational fluid dynamics study of hydrogen and vacuum residue injection

“…Bench scale experiments suggest that a volumetric hydrogen‐to‐vacuum residue ratio of 120, at standard conditions, offers the best balance between conversion and yield on one side and stability on the other side . Hovsepian et al pointed out that severe conversions yield unstable synthetic oils that have high potential for asphaltene precipitation as an adverse outcome.…”

“…This method not only reduces the required steam to near zero but also combines the production and upgrading of oil in one single step. ISUT has already showed promising results for the upgrading of oil in different reservoirs, including naturally fractured, sandstone, as well as carbonates . Also, this method has an inherent advantage over the practiced methods for oil production and recovery, such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), in that it produces a transportable crude oil with pipeline specification that does not need a diluent.…”

Recent Approaches, Catalysts and Formulations for Enhanced Recovery of Heavy Crude Oils

“…The optimisation and integration of oil recovery with in-situ upgrading could be achieved through a Dense Hot Fluid Injection (DHFI) method in which nano-catalyst is injected into the reservoir [131]. Lastly, even though the applicability of supercritical water-oxygen fluid in heavy oil conversion has been widely demonstrated, with nanoparticles, the possibility of its use at large scale operation is slim [132]. Similarly, despite the numerous advantages, the use of nanocatalysts in large-scale upgrading application remains a challenge [133].…”