Abstract
This paper describes miscible displacement upon air injection in a porous medium saturated with oil corresponding to conditions of high-pressure air injection (HPAI). We assume that injection fluids and produced fluids are fully miscible with the oil at the prevailing high pressure. We use three pseudo-components, viz., oxygen, oil, and an inert component, which includes nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. To model the fingering instabilities, we follow a similar procedure as proposed by Koval (SPE J. 3(02):145–154, 1963) and include the reaction between oxygen and oil in the Koval model. The equations are solved numerically, using a finite element software package (COMSOL). The results show that a combustion wave is formed. We study the performance at low and high viscosities and show that the reaction improves the speed and degree of recovery at later times.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adetunji, L., Teigland, R.: Light-oil air-injection performance: sensitivity to critical parameters. In: SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, volume SPE 96844 (2005)
Akkutlu, I.Y., Yortsos, Y.C.: The dynamics of in-situ combustion fronts in porous media. Combust. Flame 134, 229–247 (2003)
Barzin, Y., Moore, R.G., Mehta, S.A., Ursenbach, M.G., Tabasinejad, F.: Effect of interstitial water saturation and air flux on combustion kinetics of high pressure air injection (HPAI). In: SPE Western Regional Meeting, volume SPE 133599 (2010)
Blackwell, R.J., Rayne, J.R., Terry, W.M.: Factors influencing the efficiency of miscible displacement. AIME Petroleum Trans. 217, 1–8 (1959)
Blackwell, RJ, Terry, WM, Rayne, JR, Lindley, DC, et al., Henderson, JR: Recovery of oil by displacements with water-solvent mixtures. Petroleum Transactions, 219 (1960)
Booth, R.J.: Miscible flow through porous media. PhD thesis. University of Oxford (2008)
Bruining, J., Mailybaev, A.A., Marchesin, D.: Filtration combustion in wet porous medium. J. SIAM Appl. Math. 70, 1157–1177 (2009)
Chen, Z., Wang, L., Duan, Q., Zhang, L., Ren, S.: High-pressure air injection for improved oil recovery: Low-temperature oxidation models and thermal effect. Energy & Fuels 27(2), 780–786 (2013)
Clara, C., Durandeau, M., Quenault, G., Nguyen, T.H.: Laboratory studies for light-oil air injection projects: potential application in Handil field. SPE Reservoir Eval. Eng. 3(3), 239–248 (2000)
Denney, D.: 30 years of successful high-pressure air injection: Performance evaluation of Buffalo field, South Dakota. J. Petrol. Tech. 63(01), 50–53 (2011)
Fassihi, M.R., Yannimaras, D.V., Westfall, E.E., Gillham, T.H.: Economics of light oil air injection projects. In: SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, volume SPE 3593-MS (1996)
Gargar, N.K., Mailybaev, A.A., Marchesin, D., Bruining, H.: Effects of water on light oil recovery by air injection. Fuel 137, 200–210 (2014)
Gargar, N.K., Mailybaev, A.A, Marchesin, D., Bruining, H.: Diffusive effects on recovery of light oil by medium temperature oxidation. Transp. Porous Media 105(1), 191–209 (2014)
Greaves, M., Ren, S., Rathbone, R., Fishlock, T., Ireland, R.: Improved residual light oil recovery by air injection (LTO process). Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, 39(1) (2000)
Gutierrez, D., Taylor, A., Kumar, V., Ursenbach, M., Moore, R., Mehta, S.: Recovery factors in high-pressure air injection projects revisited. SPE Reservoir Eval. Eng. 11(6), 1097–1106 (2008)
Endo Kokubun, M.A., Gargar, N.K., Bruinning, H., Mailybaev, A.A.: Multicomponent effects in liquid–gas filtration combustion. Combust. Flame 169, 51–62 (2016)
Koval, E.J.: A method for predicting the performance of unstable miscible displacement in heterogeneous media. SPE J. 3(02), 145–154 (1963)
Mailybaev, A., Bruining, J., Marchesin, D.: Analytical formulas for in-situ combustion. SPE J. 16(03), 513–523 (2011)
Mailybaev, A.A., Marchesin, D., Bruining, J.: Resonance in low-temperature oxidation waves for porous media. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 43, 2230 (2011)
Mailybaev, A.A., Marchesin, D., Bruining, J.: Recovery of light oil by medium temperature oxidation. Transp. Porous Media 97(3), 317–343 (2013)
Montes, A.R., Gutierrez, D., Moore, R.G., Mehta, S.A., Ursenbach, M.G.: Is high-pressure air injection (HPAI) simply a flue-gas flood J. Can. Pet. Technol. 49(2), 56–63 (2010)
Moore, R.G., Mehta, S.A., Ursenbach, M.G.: A guide to high pressure air injection (HPAI) based oil recovery. In: SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, volume SPE 75207-MS (2002)
Poling, B.E., Prausnitz, J.M., O’Connell, J.P.: The Properties of Gases and Liquids. McGraw-Hill, New York (2001)
Ren, S.R., Greaves, M., Rathbone, R.R.: Air injection LTO process: an IOR technique for light-oil reservoirs. SPE J. 7(1), 90–99 (2002)
Smoller, J.: Shock Waves and Reaction-Diffusion Equations. Springer, New York (1983)
Stalkup, F.I. Jr.: Status of miscible displacement. J. Petrol. Tech. 35(04), 815–826 (1983)
Turta, A.T., Singhal, A.K.: Reservoir engineering aspects of light-oil recovery by air injection. SPE Reserv. Eval. Eng. 4(4), 336–344 (2001)
Funding
This work was supported by the CNPq (grants 303047/2018-6, 406431/2018-3) and the Program FAPERJ Pensa Rio (grant E-26/210.874/2014).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gargar, N.K., Bruining, J., Kokubun, M.A.E. et al. Combustion in miscible displacement for high-pressure air injection. Comput Geosci 24, 1663–1672 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-020-09977-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-020-09977-y