Laboratory screening of thermal recovery processes for Tar Sand Triangle

Technical Report · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5967850

Romanowski, Jr, L J; Thomas, K P

Four thermal processes (steam displacement, not-gas pyrolysis, reverse and forward combustion) were evaluated to select the most effective oil recovery process for the in situ development of the tar sand resource at Tar Sand Triangle, Utah. Reverse combustion was not considered an effective process for this deposit because of the low initial bitumen content and the nonutilization of the residual coke. Since the hot-gas pyrolysis process simulates the pyrolysis of bitumen in the forward combustion process, only steam displacement and hot-gas pyrolysis were chosen for laboratory evaluation using a tubular reactor. In the laboratory evaluation the residual oil and coke saturation after steam displacement was found to be independent of the initial bitumen content and totaled 29% of pore voluem. Since the initial bitumen saturation wasn't much greater than the residual oil saturation, the oil yield from the steam displacement test was only 9.1 wt % of the initial bitumen. The oil yield from the hot-gas pyrolysis test was 54 wt % of the initial bitumen, which is almost identical to the Fischer assay yield. The residual coke and product gas were 23 and 21 wt % of the initial bitumen, respectively. These values are much different from those determined by Fischer assay because of the steam-char and water-gas shift reactions of the hot-gas pyrolysis test. Since the forward combustion process utilizes the residual coke and is expected to produce oil yields equivalent to the hot-gas pyrolysis process, it was selected as the most promising process for the recovery of oil from the Tar Sand Triangle resource. 16 refs., 2 figs., 6 tabs.

• Research Organization: Western Research Inst., Laramie, WY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FC21-83FE60177
• OSTI ID: 5967850
• Report Number(s): DOE/FE/60177-0037; ON: DE86007927
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040401* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- In Situ Methods
True & Modified
040500 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Properties & Composition
API GRAVITY
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BITUMENS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA
DECOMPOSITION
DENSITY
DIAGRAMS
DRILL CORES
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEDERAL REGION VIII
FISCHER ASSAY
FLOWSHEETS
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
IN-SITU PROCESSING
INFORMATION
MATERIALS
MOLECULAR WEIGHT
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL SAND DEPOSITS
OIL SANDS
OIL YIELDS
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PERMEABILITY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POROSITY
PROCESSING
PYROLYSIS
PYROLYSIS PRODUCTS
PYROLYTIC OILS
RECOVERY
STEAM INJECTION
SYNTHETIC FUELS
TAR
TAR SAND TRIANGLE DEPOSIT
THERMAL RECOVERY
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
USA
UTAH
VISCOSITY
YIELDS