Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Fan Liu, Qingdong Ni, Chunguang Zhang, Wensheng Zhou, Jingqi Lin, Ruizhong Jiang
Summary: This paper presents an innovative approach and establishes a numerical simulator to analyze the heavy-oil flow behavior with waterflooding. By applying the apparent viscosity of the oil phase and flow correction coefficient characterized by the TPG, the study shows that considering TPG can not only reduce the waterflooding area but also decrease the oil displacement efficiency.
Article
Polymer Science
Wangyuan Zhang, Michal Slany, Jie Zhang, Yifan Liu, Yunlei Zang, Yongfei Li, Gang Chen
Summary: Polystyrene is widely used but difficult to recycle, causing environmental issues. Research shows that modifying waste polystyrene with acetic anhydride can improve the flow properties of crude oil.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Wenyang Shi, Lilong Xu, Lei Tao, Qingjie Zhu, Jiajia Bai
Summary: This study investigated the flow behavior of heavy oils under assistance of a novel multi-functional viscosity reducer with high temperature and ultra-heavy oil. The results showed that the new viscosity reducer can reduce the viscosity of heavy oil and decrease the oil-water interface tension.
PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Ronal de la Cruz Parejas, Francisco Jose Moura, Roberto Ribeiro de Avillez, Paulo Roberto de Souza Mendes
Summary: Heavy and extra heavy oils account for 70% of global reserves, but their high viscosity and complex composition pose challenges for recovery. Conventional methods only recover around 30% of crude oil, while enhanced oil recovery techniques offer higher recovery rates. This study explores the use of nanoparticles during steam injection to enhance cracking and reduce oil viscosity.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES A-PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS
(2021)
Article
Mechanics
Maria K. Papadimitriou, Pavlos S. Stephanou
Summary: In this paper, we propose a model to predict the rheological response of water-in-oil emulsions during crude oil extraction. The emulsions are modeled as deformable droplets using a determinant-preserving contravariant second-rank tensor. By employing the generalized bracket formalism of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, we ensure the thermodynamic admissibility of the derived model. The introduction of an additional scalar structural variable allows the prediction of a yielding point, with the predictions of the new model showing excellent agreement with experimental measurements.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Temurali Kholmurodov, Arash Tajik, Abdolreza Farhadian, Oybek Mirzayev, Pooya Tahay, Alexey V. Vakhin, Alimorad Rashidi
Summary: This study aims to fill the research gap of using aromatic ligands in catalyst synthesis for catalytic aquathermolysis of heavy oil. The developed oil-soluble catalyst (Ni-OSC) using catechol as a novel ligand effectively interacts with heavy oil fractions, reducing the content of resin and asphaltene and increasing the amounts of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons. GC-MS analysis revealed an increase in low molecular weight hydrocarbons and a higher concentration of alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons in the presence of Ni-OSC, improving the quality and recovery of heavy oil.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Zhenyu Zhang, Yefei Wang, Mingchen Ding, Dihao Mao, Mifa Chen, Yugui Han, Yigang Liu, Xinfang Xue
Summary: The role and contribution of different mechanisms to heavy oil recovery through combination flooding, such as viscosification, ultralow interface tension (IFT) and emulsification, are still unclear. In this study, emulsified and ultra-low IFT mixtures were compared in terms of IFT, emulsion stability, and oil recovery performance. Results showed that while the ultra-low IFT mixture had a very low IFT, its emulsion stability was poor, whereas the emulsified mixtures were more effective in stabilizing heavy oil emulsion. The contribution of emulsification was found to be higher when the viscosity ratio was lower than 0.2, but decreased as the viscosity ratio increased.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Cunchuan Zheng, Haoran Fu, Yongliang Wang, Tailiang Zhang, Zhiyu Huang, Wenmeng Duan
Summary: The viscosity reducer prepared by using SA and S as polymerization monomers, and EDMA as branched monomers can effectively inhibit asphaltene precipitation by changing the polarity of asphaltene molecules, resulting in improved dispersion of asphaltene.
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Rui Guo, Wei Fu, Le Qu, Yongfei Li, Weihua Yuan, Gang Chen
Summary: In this study, Fe(III) oleate was used as a catalyst and methanol was introduced as a hydrogen donor in aquathermolysis. The results showed that methanol can increase the viscosity reduction rate of aquathermolysis. The addition of methanol promoted the breakage of long-chain alkanes in heavy oil, decreased the content of asphaltene and resin, and improved the fluidity of oil samples.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Jianwei Wang, Xiaodong Tang, Jingjing Li, Lan Dai, Guizhong Deng
Summary: The effects and upgrading mechanism of biomass in the aquathermolysis of heavy oil were studied. The results showed that biomass is more suitable as a source of hydrogen and oxygen compared to water, but the active hydroxyl group in biomass reduces the upgrading efficiency.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Ahmed E. Radwan, Bassem S. Nabawy, Ahmed A. Kassem, Walid S. Hussein
Summary: Waterflooding is a common method in the oil and gas industry, but can suffer from technical failures and inefficiencies. Understanding geology, reservoir characteristics, rock typing, hydraulic flow units, and production data is essential to analyze the reasons and mechanisms of water injection failure.
NATURAL RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Fayang Jin, Tingting Jiang, Chengdong Yuan, Mikhail A. Varfolomeev, Fei Wan, Yufei Zheng, Xiaowei Li
Summary: A new viscosity prediction model for extra heavy oil has been proposed in this study, based on filtration experiments, that can more accurately reflect the real apparent viscosity when heavy oil flows in production pipeline.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mayda Lam-Maldonado, Yolanda G. Aranda-Jimenez, Eduardo Arvizu-Sanchez, Jose A. Melo-Banda, Nancy P. Diaz-Zavala, Josue F. Perez-Sanchez, Edgardo J. Suarez-Dominguez
Summary: Research reports highlight the significance of using various substances to enhance the transportation of extra-heavy crude oil in pipelines. Shearing occurs during the oil conduction process, leading to the formation of water-in-crude emulsion with increased viscosity due to the adsorption of natural surfactant molecules. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of flow enhancers in reducing viscosity and promoting Newtonian flow behavior in both extra heavy crude oil and emulsions formed with different water percentages.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Xiaodong Gao, Pingchuan Dong, Jiawei Cui, Qichao Gao
Summary: This study aims to develop a more accurate viscosity model of diluted heavy crude based on machine learning techniques. By using a multilayer neural network to predict the viscosity of heavy oil diluted with lighter oil, it was found that the new model can predict the viscosity of diluted heavy oil with higher accuracy and outperforms other models.
Article
Polymer Science
Junqi Wang, Ruiqing Liu, Yiwen Tang, Junfeng Zhu, Yonghui Sun, Guanghua Zhang
Summary: In this study, a series of polyether carboxylic acid-sulfonate polymeric surfactants were synthesized and their viscosity reduction performance and the effect of different chain lengths on the viscosity reduction effect were investigated. The experimental results showed that this series of polymeric surfactants exhibited excellent viscosity reduction performance, with the highest viscosity reduction rate exceeding 95%.
