In situ combustion with metallic additives SUPRI TR 87

Technical Report · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5122211· OSTI ID:5122211

Holt, R J

In-situ combustion is the most energy efficient of the thermal oil recovery methods. In this process, a portion of a reservoir's oil is burned in-situ as fuel to drive the recovery process. In light oil reservoirs, too little fuel may be deposited, making sustained combustion difficult. In heavy oil reservoirs, too much fuel may be deposited leading to high air injection requirements and unfavorable economics. This study has been designed to attack these problems. Water soluble metallic additives are investigated as agents to modify fuel deposition and combustion performance. This report describes seven combustion tube runs using two cradle oils and two metallic additives. The oils are 12{degrees} and 34{degrees} API, both from Cymric (California). The metallic additives tested are ionic nitrate (Fe(NO{sub 3}){sub 3}9H{sub 2}O) and zinc nitrate (Zn(NO{sub 3}){sub 2}6H{sub 2}O). Iron and tin additives improved the combustion efficiency in all cases. Fluctuations in the produced gas compositions were observed in all control runs, but nearly disappeared with the iron and tin additives. The combustion front velocities were also increased by iron and tin. Changes were also observed in the apparent hydrogen to carbon (H/C) ratio of the fuel, heat of combustion, air requirements, and amount of fuel deposited. Iron and tin caused increases in fuel concentration while causing a decrease in air requirement. The increase in fuel concentration varied between the oils, however, tin and iron were consistently more effective than zinc. A particularly interesting result occurred with the Cymric light oil. In the control runs, a sustained combustion front was not achieved, while in the iron additive runs, stable, sustained combustion was achieved. Iron and tin salts are suitable additives to increase fuel deposition when that is needed. Additives suitable for use as a fuel reducing agent have not yet been found. 26 refs., 23 figs, 6 tabs.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Petroleum Research Inst.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-90BC14600
• OSTI ID: 5122211
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC/14600-29; SUPRI-TR-87; ON: DE92001057
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
IN-SITU COMBUSTION
ADDITIVES
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
IRON NITRATES
ZINC NITRATES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HYDRATES
OIL WELLS
PETROLEUM
THERMAL RECOVERY
VISCOSITY
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
IN-SITU PROCESSING
INFORMATION
IRON COMPOUNDS
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDATION
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
WELLS
ZINC COMPOUNDS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production