In-Situ Upgrading and Recovery Enhancement of Athabasca Bitumen by Ultra-Dispersed Nanocatalysts
Date
2013-12-09
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Abstract
Thermal methods are extensively used to extract heavy oil and bitumen with reasonable recovery percentages to compensate for the light oil production decline in recent years. In addition, new technologies are tested to increase the value of the produced liquids. Nanoparticles technology is emerging as a new alternate technology for enhancing the upgrading and recovery processes of heavy oil. Ultra-dispersed nanocatalysts can be injected into the reservoir along with hydrogen to enhance both the upgrading and recovery of heavy oil. Nanocatalysts can be introduced into the reservoir at a typical SAGD configuration (in the area between injector and producer) with the desired residence time to produce higher quality products with enhanced heavy oil recovery. However, before applying these nanocatalysts in the field and testing their performance, their transport behavior inside the porous media and catalytic activity towards heavy oil upgrading and subsequently recovery enhancement has to be determined.
In this study, a pilot plant unit was built in-house to investigate the performance of multi-metallic nanoparticles in an oil sand packed bed column at high pressure and temperature conditions. Results showed that nanoparticles could be controllably delivered inside the medium with a meager influence on the medium permeability. In addition, deposition of the nanoparticles mainly occurs at the entrance of injection zone and rapidly decreases across the reaction zone.
Moreover, effect of different hot fluid injection scenarios on recovery enhancement has been evaluated in presence and absence of tri-metallic nanocatalysts. Comparing the
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recovery curves show effectiveness of nanocatalysts on recovery enhancement. In addition, presence of nanocatalysts inside the porous media along with hydrogen enhanced the quality of produced liquids by reducing the hydrocarbon residue and micro carbon content. Furthermore, significant enhancement of liquid viscosity and API gravity was achieved. In the other side, using the nanocatalysts enhanced the hydrocracking reactions by reducing coke formation as well as reduction of carbon dioxide emission, which reduces the environmental impact of nanocatalysts on the in-situ upgrading processes.
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Engineering--Chemical, Engineering--Petroleum
Citation
Hashemi, R. (2013). In-Situ Upgrading and Recovery Enhancement of Athabasca Bitumen by Ultra-Dispersed Nanocatalysts (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26558