Improving the Performance of Vapor Extraction of Heavy Oil and Bitumen Using the Warm VAPEX Process
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
Abstract The advantages of solvent-based enhanced oil recovery processes for production of heavy oil and bitumen have always been sacrificed with their low oil production rates and also high solvent costs. Attempts have been made to integrate the solvent and thermal processes to attain better recovery techniques in terms of improved oil production rate, oil quality, and material and energy requirements. In this paper, the process of warm VAPEX is introduced where the injected solvent is superheated. The temperature of solvent vapor (nC5), permeability of packed medium, and the viscosity of oil in place were considered as experimental factors. The VAPEX experiments were performed at 3 temperature levels (36, 43 and 50 °C) using Cold Lake bitumen and Lloydminster heavy oil at two permeability levels (220 and 830 Darcy). The performance of the warm VAPEX process was compared to that of the conventional VAPEX. The packed model was placed in an isothermal bath of circulating hot air to lower the heat loss to surrounding and also to avoid temperature variations of the environment between different trials. During the experiments, the live and dead oil production rates, solvent content analysis, asphaltene content analysis and also residual oil analysis were conducted. The production performance was enhanced, to some extent, when the solvent was allowed to condense, by lowering the temperature of the isothermal bath below the solvent dew point temperature. However, upon a moderate degree of superheating (i.e., the mid-level temperature of 43 °C), the bitumen production was substantially increased at both levels of permeability. The solvent content and solvent-to-oil ratio during the warm VAPEX process decreased with increasing the degree of superheat. Except for the warm VAPEX trial at bubble point temperature, the solvent-to-oil ratios were lower in the warm VAPEX, as compared to the baseline. The asphaltene content analysis showed insignificant deposition of asphaltene during the conventional VAPEX process in which condensation did not occur. On the other hand maximum asphaltene precipitation was achieved at the lowest temperature level (bubble point temperature). At a fixed level of permeability and initial oil viscosity, the residual oil saturation increased with the level of solvent superheating. Therefore, by applying optimal operating conditions, the oil production rate significantly increases while the solvent-to-oil ratio decreases as a result of decreased solubility of solvent in the bitumen. Both factors favor the economy of the VAPEX process. In-situ upgrading of the crude will also occur, which contributes to the improved quality of the produced oil.
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Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction machine sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Le volet Gemma est une étiquette directe du modèle pour chaque travail de la base, lue sur la notice réduite au titre. Le volet Codex est un classifieur appris des 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et calibré sur les taux pondérés de l'échantillon; les champs sans appui suffisant ne portent aucun appel Codex. Le mode candidate est l'union des deux volets; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont pas des étiquettes humaines.
Scores du classifieur distillé par catégorie (deux têtes)
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,000 | 0,001 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Communication savante | 0,000 | 0,001 |
| Science ouverte | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,001 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule source (Gemma direct ou Codex distillé), pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».