Effect of Metallic Additives on In-Situ Combustion of Huntington Beach Crude
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The economics and applicability of an in-situ combustion process for the recovery of crude oil are dictated to a large extent by the nature and the amount of fuel formed during the process. If the amount of fuel deposited is insufficient, as in the case of light oil reservoirs, the combustion front will not be self sustaining. If excessive fuel is deposited, as in the case of very heavy oil reservoirs, the air requirements will be excessive and the process may not be economically viable. Through kinetic studies on crude oil oxidation in porous media, metals have been shown, on a qualitative basis, to affect the nature and the amount of fuel formed. The aim of this work is to use combustion tube studies to determine on a quantitative basis, how the nature and the amount of fuel formed could be changed by the presence of metallic additives. These experiments follow from the qualitative observations on the effect of metallic additives on the in-situ combustion of Huntington Beach crude oil made by De los Rios (1987) at SUPRI. He performed kinetic studies on the oxidation of Huntington Beach crude in porous media and showed that the nature of the fuel formed changed when metallic additives were present. In this study, combustion tube runs were performed using the metallic additives: ferrous chloride (FeC/2.4//2O), zinc chloride (ZnCy and stannic chloride (SnC/4.5//2O). Soluble salts of these metals were selected from the results observed in De Los Rios' kinetic studies. Unconsolidated cores were prepared by mixing predetermined amounts of an aqueous solution of the metal salt, Huntington Beach crude oil, Ottawa sand and clay in order to achieve the desired fluid saturations. The mixture was then tamped into the combustion tube. Dry air combustion tube runs were performed keeping the conditions of saturation, air flux and injection pressure approximately the same during each run. The nature of the fuel formed and its impact on the combustion parameters were determined and compared with a control run - an experiment performed with no metallic additive. It was found that the presence of metallic additives increased the atomic hydrogen to carbon ratio of the fuel from 0.07 for the control run to 0.13 in the presence of ferrous chloride, 0.61 with zinc chloride and 0.79 with stannic chloride. The H/C ratio of the fuel coupled with the extent to which the oxidation formed CO2 in preference to CO affected the following combustion parameters: velocity of the combustion front, heat of combustion of the deposited fuel, air requirements at 100% combustion efficiency, the air/oil ratio and the oil recovery rates. As a result of the increased hydrogen content of fuel, the heat of combustion and the air requirements at 100% combustion efficiency increased as the H/C ratio increased. The metallic additives increased the burning front velocity and the oil recovery rate. However these were found to be affected by the oxygen utilization efficiency, the nature and the amount of fuel formed and the air flux.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | March 1990 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Baena, Christopher Joseph |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Brigham, William E. |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Petroleum Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Baena, Christopher Joseph. (1990). Effect of Metallic Additives on In-Situ Combustion of Huntington Beach Crude. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/sf243ph1538
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksContact information
- Contact
- brannerlibrary@stanford.edu
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...