Enhanced Recovery of Light Oil by using Combustion Tube: An Experimental Analysis

ABSTRACT

The multitude of chemical compounds in the crude oil and their multiple reactions with oxygen pose serious challenge to the understanding of in situ combustion in porous media. This article describes a combustion tube experiment of a light oil sample of 37°API, and the derivation of an overall reaction stoichiometry from the effluent analysis. The differential scanning Calorimetry and the thermo-gravimetric analysis show the distillation of crude oil at low temperature, and multiple oxidation regimes at higher temperature. In the combustion tube experiment, the injected air could sustain the combustion front at around 550°C. The cumulative flow of oil and brine was monitored with time vis-à-vis the progression of the front. The non-condensable gases at the effluent were analyzed to find the CO/(CO+CO₂) ratio and the H/C ratio. Based on the composition of the flue gas, an overall reaction stoichiometry was formulated.

KEYWORDS:

• Crude oil
• light oil
• thermal recovery
• oxidation
• combustion

Acknowledgments

Institute of Reservoir Studies, ONGC, Ahmedabad, India.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).