Applications of metallic nanoparticles for in-situ combustion : delivery and enhanced performance
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The advantage of using nanoparticles to influence reaction kinetics in hydrocarbon reservoirs is two-fold: nanoparticles are better catalysts for oxidation reactions because of their large surface-area-to-volume ratio and have increased transportability through porous media because of their small size. In-situ combustion (ISC) is a thermal recovery method used to access light and heavy crude oil deposits by physically and chemically altering the oil in place. Success, among a host of factors, depends on the nature of oxidation and non-oxidative reactions and the combustion fuel. Metal nanocatalysts, specifically, can improve the process by providing a way to alter those critical parameters beneficially. This work explains why and how specific metal nanoparticles enhance heavy-oil ISC and develops a new method for the emplacement of those nanoparticles in porous media. The effects of seven different transition metal nanoparticles on Colombian, Venezuelan, and Mexican crude oil samples were investigated. Experiments were used to measure the change in burning characteristics with additives at two different length scales. At the small-scale, select nanoparticles decrease the apparent activation energy for combustion, change the limiting gateway reaction, make combustion fuel more reactive, increase fuel quality, and alter low-temperature oxidation products. During reactive flow, the improvements as mentioned above are critical to helping sustain combustion when excessive fuel deposition causes premature quenching. For ISC candidates that burn well, increased efficiency leads to greater oil production. Considering these benefits, emplacement of nanoparticles into the hydrocarbon system needs to be handled appropriately. The most critical feature of any transport mechanism is its ability to maximize catalytic surface area; however, due, in large part, to a lack of understanding of the fundamental science governing delivery and emplacement of nanoparticles on or near solid-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces, this is a nontrivial undertaking. Therefore, a new method is developed in order to achieve the result mentioned above. The mechanism decreases particle interactions with other elements in the reservoir by encapsulating nanoparticles in the dispersed phase of an oil-in-water emulsion. The hydrophilic-lipophilic difference, a semi-empirical formulation, provides the means to calculate the temperature (phase inversion temperature) that the emulsion destabilizes and releases nanocatalysts in the pore space. Direct visualization and injection experiments confirm delivery efficacy and show that the technique delivers a relatively equitable distribution of nanoparticles to the porous medium.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Amanam, Usua Utibe | |
|---|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Kovscek, Anthony R. (Anthony Robert) | |
| Thesis advisor | Kovscek, Anthony R. (Anthony Robert) | |
| Thesis advisor | Castanier, Louis M | |
| Thesis advisor | Horne, Roland N | |
| Degree committee member | Castanier, Louis M | |
| Degree committee member | Horne, Roland N | |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Energy Resources Engineering. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Usua Utibe Usua Amanam. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Energy Resources Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Usua Utibe Amanam
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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