Reservoir Evaluation and Development ›› 2019, Vol. 9 ›› Issue (4): 36-40.

• Petroleum Engineering • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Improved efficiency of in-situ combustion by application of submicro metal oxides particles

ZHANG Xian1,CHE Hongchang2,LIU Yisheng2,CHEN Xin2   

  1. 1.Petroleum Engineering Institute, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, Heilongjiang 163318, China
    2. Rumaila Project of PetroChina International Middle East Company, Beijing 100120, China
  • Received:2018-09-28 Online:2019-08-28 Published:2019-08-26

Abstract:

In order to identify the effect of ultra-fine transition metal catalyst on the in-situ combustion of heavy oil, thermal analysis and isoconversional method were used to evaluate the burning oxidation kinetics of three ultra-fine transition metal particles—NiO, α·Fe2O3 and Co3O4. And then, one-dimensional in-situ combustion experiment was carried out by the optimized catalyst. The experimental results showed that, in the presence of Co3O4, the activation energy of heavy oil decreased the most, up to 41.7 %. Meanwhile, Co3O4 had higher catalytic activity, that made it suitable for in-situ combustion experiment. Compared to conventional in-situ combustion, high temperature oxidation reaction of crude oil was enhanced under the catalytic condition of Co3O4. The oxygen utilization ratio increased by 6.79 %, the combustion time shortened by 11.8 %, the average temperature of the leading edge of combustion increased by 20 ℃, the maximum temperature difference of the leading edge of combustion reduced by 4 ℃, the combustion was more stable, the advance speed of the leading edge increased by 0.042 cm/min, the final oil displacement efficiency increased by 5.7 %, and the viscosity reduction rate of the produced oil increased by 7.2 %. The research results have important guiding significance for expanding the application of heavy oil recovery by in-situ combustion.

Key words: heavy oil, in-situ combustion, ultra-fine particle, metal oxides, catalyze

CLC Number: 

  • TE345