Enhanced heavy oil recovery and performance by application of catalytic in-situ combustion

Abstract

Combustion tube experiments were carried out under various conditions to investigate the performance of catalytic in-situ combustion for recovering heavy oil. Compared with baseline experiment, the catalytic combustion exhibited better performance. Fractional oxygen gas in effluent gases was reduced by 2.9%, while fractional carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide was increased by 1.0% and 0.6%, respectively. Oxygen utilization efficiency was increased by 2.1% and apparent H/C atom ratio was lowered by 0.9%. The combustion performance was obtained under optimum experimental condition of air injection rate of 2.9 mL/min, preheated temperature of 190 °C, and grain-size gradation 2.

Keywords:

• combustion tube
• enhanced oil recovery
• experiment
• heavy oil
• in-situ combustion

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University Nursing Program for Young Scholars with Creative Talents in Heilongjiang Province [grant number: UNPYSCT-2017034], and National Science and Technology Major Project [grant number 2016ZX05002006].