Petroleum scientists forecast catalyst adsorption during drainage displacement
A paper saw light in International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer.
The research is part of KFU’s Russian Science Foundation-funded project ‘New technological approaches to underground catalytic refining of highly viscous and super-viscous oil’ started in 2021.
One of the areas of the grant was development of a software complex for simulation of dynamic adsorption of water-soluble catalysts for oil displacement in digital cores. It is well known that the use of water- or oil-soluble catalysts is necessary to partially process hydrocarbon raw materials and to improve the quality of heavy oil in formation conditions directly at deposits. When they enter a porous environment, they may be exposed to adsorption, during which catalyst particles are deposited on the surface of geological rocks, in other words, they are adsorbed by solids. On the one hand, adsorption has a negative effect because a certain amount of the catalyst is lost (when deposited on the surface of particles). On the other hand, adsorbed particles may be useful for the repeated vapour-thermal effects accompanying the aquathermolysis process. While the static adsorption of the catalyst under stationary conditions is well understood, the results of adsorption under dynamic conditions (moving filtration flow) were previously missing.
“The novelty of our work is that dynamic adsorption is considered in multi-phase currents, that is, in the process of oil displacement, which implies its effects and features. Before that, we worked with single-phase currents where the catalyst was dissolved in water and moved in a sample that also contains water,” explains Associate Professor Timur Zakirov.
The scholars used KFU’s digital core sample technology and a software tool to model dynamic absorption of catalysts. The mathematical model factors in viscosity, interfacial tension, edge wetting angle, and many other parameters.
“Based on our research we will know in advance that under certain development parameters there will be large losses, and then it makes no sense to inject the catalyst. Knowing that with other development parameters catalyst loss is small, we will understand that the catalyst’s involvement in the steam-thermal impact on oil will be more effective,” adds Zakirov.
The paper contributes to the classification of regimes of dynamic adsorption in oil displacement. It is shown that at low adsorption intensity, the reduction of the catalyst flow rate in the pore space contributes to an increase in the adsorbed amount. And with high adsorption, the absorbed amount of catalyst is determined by the oil displacement efficiency.
Corporate clients have already shown interest in purchasing the software used in this particular research.