In-Situ Combustion With Metallic Additives
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In-situ combustion is the most energy efficient of the thermal oil recovery methods. In this process, a portion of a reservoir's oil is burned in-situ as fuel to drive the recovery process. In light oil reservoirs, too little fuel may be deposited, making sustained combustion difficult. In heavy oil reservoirs, too much fuel may be deposited leading to high air injection requirements and unfavourable economics. This study has been designed to attack these problems. Water soluble metallic additives are investigated as agents to modify fuel deposition and combustion performance. In previous papers (Shallcross 1989, De los Rios et al, 1988), results were reported from kinetics experiments run on Huntington Beach (California) and Hamaca (Venezuela) crude oils. In these experiments, mixtures of sand, crude oil, and aqueous metallic salts were oxidized. Whi1.e the presence of copper, nickel and cadmium had little or no effect; iron and tin increased oxidation rates and oxygen consumption. This report describes seven combustion tube runs using two crude oils and two metallic additives. The oils are 12" and 34" API, both from Cymric (California). The metallic additives tested are iron nitrate (Fe(NO3)39H2O) and zinc nitrate (Zn(NO3)26H2O). In previous studies, Baena et al (1990) and Castanier et al (1992)) have presented a total of eight combustion tube runs with the metallic additives iron chloride (FeC/24H2O), zinc chloride (ZnC12), and tin chloride (SnC145H2O) usingHuntington Beach (California) and Hamaca (Venezuela) oils.Iron and tin additives improved the combustion efficiency in all cases. Fluctuations in the produced gas compositions were observed in all control runs, but nearly disappeared with the iron and tin additives. The combustion front velocities were also increased by iron and tin. Changes were also observed in the apparent hydrogen to carbon (H/C) ratio of the fuel, heat of combustion, air requirements, and amount of fuel deposited. Iron and tin caused increases in fuel concentration while causing a decrease in air requirement. The increase in fuel concentration varied between the oils, however, tin and iron ware consistently more effective than zinc.A particularly interesting result occurred with the Cymric light oil. In the control runs, a sustained combustion front was not achieved, while in the iron additive runs, stable, sustained combustion was achieved.Iron and tin salts are suitable additives to increase fuel deposition when that is needed. Additives suitable for use as a fuel reducing agent have not yet been found.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 1992 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Holt, Richard Joseph |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Castanier, Louis M. |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Petroleum Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Holt, Richard Joseph. (1992). In-Situ Combustion With Metallic Additives. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/mw830tk7018
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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