effect of dilute alkaline on the interfacial properties of heavy oil

66 Pages·2012·1.28 MB·English

EFFECT OF DILUTE ALKALINE ON THE INTERFACIAL
PROPERTIES OF HEAVY OIL

by

Yong J. Deng

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master
of Engineering

Supervisor: Dr. M. Pegg, P.Eng.
Department of Process Engineering & Applied Science (PEAS)

at
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY, CANADA
April 2012
© Yong J. Deng, 2012
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Engineering
Petroleum Engineering Program

The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate
Studies for acceptance of a thesis entitled “EFFECT OF DILUTE ALKALINE ON THE
INTERFACIAL PROPERTIES OF HEAVY OIL” by Yong J. Deng in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the degree of Master of Engineering

Date: April 12, 2012

Supervisor .
Dr Michael Pegg

Readers .
Dr J. Haelssig

Department Representative .

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DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

DATE: April 12, 2012
AUTHOR: YONG J. DENG
TITLE: EFFECT OF DILUTE ALKALINE ON THE INTERFACIAL
PROPERTIES OF HEAVY OIL
MAJOR SUBJECT: PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
DEGREE: MASTER OF ENGINEERING
CONVOCATION: MAY, 2012

Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-
commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or
institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public
The author reserves other publication rights. Neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may
be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission.
The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material
appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in
the scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged.

.
Signature of the author

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DEDICATION

To my dear mother and siblings who stood by me throughout my studies

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................ viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ x
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... xi
1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 6
1.3 Outline of the research .......................................................................................................... 7
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................... 8
2.1 Heavy crude oil ..................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.1 Geological origin of Heavy Crude Oils ....................................................................................... 9
2.1.2 Biodegradation of crude oil ........................................................................................................ 10
2.1.3 Heavy Oil Reservoirs ................................................................................................................. 11
2.1.4 Composition of Heavy Crude oil ............................................................................................... 12
2.1.5 Geological distribution of heavy oil reserves ............................................................................. 12
2.1.6 Canadian heavy Oil resources .................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Recovery of heavy oil ......................................................................................................... 15
2.3 Primary recovery mechanisms ............................................................................................ 16
2.4 Secondary recovery mechanisms ........................................................................................ 16
2.5 Tertiary recovery/enhanced oil recovery............................................................................. 16
2.5.1 Thermal methods........................................................................................................................ 17
2.6 Chemical flooding ............................................................................................................... 20
2.6.1 Mobility Control Processes ........................................................................................................ 20
2.6.2 Low Interfacial Tension Processes............................................................................................. 22
2.7 Alkaline flooding................................................................................................................. 27
2.7.1 Alkaline Reaction with Crude Oil .............................................................................................. 27
3.0 EXPERIMENTS ................................................................................................................ 29
3.1 Reagents .............................................................................................................................. 29
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3.1.1 Heavy oil .................................................................................................................................... 29
3.1.2 Toluene ...................................................................................................................................... 29
3.1.3 Brine solution ............................................................................................................................. 30
3.1.4 Alkaline ...................................................................................................................................... 30
3.2 Equipments used ................................................................................................................. 31
3.2.1 Spinning Drop Tensiometer-Site 100......................................................................................... 31
3.3 Procedures ........................................................................................................................... 35
3.3.1 Preparation of heavy oil ............................................................................................................. 35
3.3.2 Preparation of brine and alkaline solutions ................................................................................ 36
3.3.3 Carrying out the measurement with Spinning Drop Tensiometer-Site 100 ............................... 37
4.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ...................................................................................... 39
4.1 Results ................................................................................................................................. 39
4.2 Discussions .......................................................................................................................... 39
4.2.1 Effect of temperature on interfacial tension ............................................................................... 39
4.2.2 Effect of alkaline concentration on interfacial tension............................................................... 40
5.0 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................ 41
5.1 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 41
5.2 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 42
5.3 Recommendations for further research and application of alkaline flooding ..................... 43
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 44
APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................. 47

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1: Projection of US energy sources (EIA, 2011).............................................................. 1
Figure 1-2: Chart of oil sand extraction technologies (Speight, 2010) ........................................... 3
Figure 1-3: Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes (Speight, 2010) ..................................................... 5
Figure 2-1: Geographical Distribution of Heavy crude oil ........................................................... 13
Figure 2-2: location of Canadian heavy crude oil (NEB, 2001) ................................................... 14
Figure 2-3: Methods of oil recovery (Speight, 2010) ................................................................... 15
Figure 2-4: Schematic of the SAGD process (Speight, 2010) ...................................................... 18
Figure 2-5: Sketch of steam injection process (Speight, 2010) .................................................... 19
Figure 2-6: Schematics of polymer flooding (Wiley Critical Content, 2007) .............................. 22
Figure 2-7: Graph showing a capillary desaturation curve (Sheng, 2010) ................................... 24
Figure 2-8: Micellar-polymer flooding process ............................................................................ 26
Figure 3-1: Diagram of Spinning Drop Tensiometer-Site100 ...................................................... 31
Figure 3-2: Diagram of the parts of Spinning Drop Tensiometer-Site100 (KRUSS, 2012)......... 32
Figure 3-3: Diagram of the needle used to dispense the heavy oil droplet into the capillary
(Sigma Aldrich, 2012) .................................................................................................................. 32
Figure 3-4: Diagram of spinning drop geometry (Salager, 2005) ................................................ 33
Figure 3-5: Image of the viscous heavy oil before it is diluted with toluene................................ 35
Figure 3-6: Diagram of a typical spinning drop (Wikipedia, 2012) ............................................. 38
Figure 4-1: IFT vs temperatures ................................................................................................... 39
Figure 4-2: IFT against NaOH concentration at temperatures from 20 oC to 80 oC ..................... 40

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3-1 Table of the physical characteristic of Toluene solvent ............................................... 29
Table 3-2 Table of the physical characteristic of Salts ................................................................. 30
Table 3-3: Table of the physical characteristic of Sodium Hydroxide ......................................... 30
Table 3-4: salt and brine compositions ......................................................................................... 36

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LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Symbols
λ Mobility of the displacing fluid
D
λ Mobility of the displaced fluid
d
γ Interfacial tension (N/m)
Contact angle (degrees)
Viscosity (cp)
Velocity (m/s)
porosity
Pressure difference (N/ m2)
Δρ Density difference (kg/m3)
ω Angular velocity (rad)
bbl Barrel
E Vertical Sweep Efficiency
1
E Areal Displacement Efficiency (ft2/ft2)
A
E Volumetric Displacement Efficiency (bbl/bbl)
v
ft feet
Km kilometer
M Mobility ratio
M Mobility of the displaced fluid
d
M Mobility of the displacing fluid
D
N Capillary number
c
P Capillary pressure (N/m2)
c
p Pressure in the water phase (N/m2)
w
p Pressure in the oil phase (N/m2)
o
R Radius of the oil bubble (m)
R Radius of the bubble at the equator (m)
m
S Residual oil saturation (%)
or
S Water saturation (%)
w

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Abbreviations

API American Petroleum Institute
ASP Alkaline Surfactant Polymer flooding
CCD Charge-Coupled Device
CSS Cyclic Steam Stimulation
CHOPS Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand
CDC Capillary Desaturation Curve
EOR Enhanced Oil Recovery
EIA Energy Information Administration
FSU Former Soviet Union (Countries)
HC Hydrocarbon gases
IFT Interfacial Tension
JCPT Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology
LED Light-Emitting Diode
MP Micellar-Polymer flooding
NEB National Energy Board
OOIP Original Oil in Place
PV Porous Volume
ROS Residual Oil Saturation
SAGD Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
VAPEX Vapour Extraction
WAG Water Alternating Gas

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