Experimental and Analytical Studies of Hydrocarbon Yields under Dry, Steam, and Steam-Propane Distillation

Abstract

This paper presents experimental studies to confirm and understand oil production accelerated when propane is used as additive during steam injection. Distillation experiments were performed using seven-component synthetic oil consisting of equal weights of alkanes. For comparison purposes, three different distillations were investigated: dry, steam, and steam-propane distillation, the latter at a propane-steam mass ratio of 0.05. Based on the experimental results, it is noted that the components appear to boil off at lower temperatures with steam-propane injection than with pure steam injection (with reference to dry distillation). Lowering of hydrocarbon boiling points by steam-propane injection appears to be the fundamental phenomenon that can explain: (1) higher yields during distillation of the synthetic oil, and (2) production acceleration, reduction in produced oil density and viscosity, and improved steam injectivity during steam-propane displacement of crude oils. Also, a thermodynamic description of the hydrocarbon synthetic mixture was done. The activity fugacity coefficient, the specific Gibbs energy, and the vaporization equilibrium ratio were calculated. It was founded that the largest activity fugacity coefficient and the smallest specific Gibbs energy were presented when steam-propane is used in the distillation experiments. The experimental procedure and method of analysis developed in this study will be beneficial to future researches in understanding the effect of propane as steam additive on actual crude oils.

Keywords:

• distillation
• hydrocarbon yield
• steam-propane injection
• synthetic oil