THAI—A ‘Short-Distance Displacement’ In Situ Combustion Process for the Recovery and Upgrading of Heavy Oil

Xia, Tian; Gréaves, M.; Turta, Alex; Ayasse, Conrad

doi:10.1205/02638760360596847

Cited by 58 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In situ (CAPRI) has been studied extensively for more than fifteen years after the first work of Greaves and co-workers [11][12][13][14][15][16] . The THAI method is classified as a modified in situ combustion because of the use of horizontal production well instead of vertical well, in which air is continuously injected to support the in situ combustion while the thermal cracking occurring at the mobile oil zone ahead of the combustion front partially upgrade the oil prior to entering the horizontal well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Different Transition Metal Dispersed Catalysts for In Situ Heavy Oil Upgrading

Al-Marshed

Hart

Leeke

et al. 2015

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ultradispersed particles of size less than 100 nm for in situ catalytic upgrading have been reported to outperform the augmented catalytic upgrading achieved by incorporating pelleted refinery catalyst to the horizontal production well of the THAI process. Hydroconversion of heavy oil was carried out in a stirred batch reactor at 425˚C, 50 bar (initial H 2 pressure), 900 rpm and 60 min reaction time using a range of unsupported transition metal (Mo, Ni and Fe) catalysts. The effect of metal nanoparticles (NPs) was evaluated in terms of product distribution, physical properties and product quality. The produced coke and recovered catalysts were also studied. The levels of API gravity and viscosity of the upgraded oils observed with the NPs was approximately 21˚API and 108 cP compared with thermal cracking alone (24˚API and 53.5 cP), this moderate upgrade with NPs is due to the lack of cracking functionality offered by supports such as zeolite, alumina or silica. However, it was found that the presence of dispersed NPs significantly suppressed coke formation 4.4 wt% (MoS 2 ), 5.7 wt% (NiO) and 6.8 wt% (Fe 2 O 3 ) compared to 12 wt% obtained with thermal cracking alone. The results also showed that with dispersed unsupported metal NPs in sulfide form the middle distillate (177-343 ˚C) of the upgraded oil was improved particularly MoS 2 which gave 50 wt% relative to 43 wt% (thermal cracking) and 28 wt% (feed oil). The middle distillate yields for Fe 2 O 3 and NiO are 47 wt% and 49 wt%, respectively. Hence, iron and nickel-based unsupported NPs showed similar activity when compared to MoS 2 . The cost and availability of iron-based catalysts compared to Ni and Mo counterpart for heavy oil upgrading are advantages that may justify its preference.Furthermore, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that introducing dispersed catalysts to the upgrading helped to produce sponge-type coke which could be used as industrial fuel compared to shot-type obtained upon thermal cracking.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Different Transition Metal Dispersed Catalysts for In Situ Heavy Oil Upgrading

Al-Marshed

Hart

Leeke

et al. 2015

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…THAI process (Xia et al, 2003) [6] combustion chemical reactions. When ISC is applied for field productions, combustion front propagation may be difficult to control due to insufficient information on reservoir condition.…”

Section: International Journal Of Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) method proposed by Pfefferle (2009) [6] , one of ISC methods, has a potential to produce bitumen economically, because THAI method using a horizontal producer that can control combustion front with short distance gravity drainage (Xia et al, 2003) [7] . Developing of practical numerical simulation models is required for THAI process as same as SAGD method.…”

Section: International Journal Of Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The schematic concept of THAI process ( Figure 1) uses a horizontal production well instead of a vertical production well (Xia et al [7] ). Firstly, air is injected to oil sands reservoir by using injection well located at the upper part of reservoir.…”

Section: Modeling Of Thai Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, for the case of THAI process, this problem may not be occurred, because oil is drawn down into perforated section of the horizontal production well where just below the combustion zone [7] .…”

Section: Modeling Of Thai Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations