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f Coupling Heat and Mass Transfer at Interface for ES-SAGD with Multicomponent Solvent Injection
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 79th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2017, Jun 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 2
Abstract
Co-injection of solvent and steam in Expanding Solvent-Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (ES-SAGD) increases the mobility of highly viscous oil relative to conventional SAGD wherein only steam is injected. This consequently results in higher oil production rates and lower energy consumption relative to SAGD due to the combined benefits of heating and dilution. Current efforts have been made to study mass transfer from a single-component-solvent/steam mixture into the heavy oil at the steam front, while the low-cost multicomponent solvent is actually co-injected with steam on the field, which presents a much more complicated interfacial condition.A generalized methodology has been developed to couple heat and mass transfer of this solventssteamheavy oil system at the interface.Results show that there exists a noticeable transient interface in the experiments and the mathematical model can reproduce the range of transit zone shown in the 2D glass-bead model with different multicomponent solvents.With the new methodology, an optimum multicomponent solvent can be screened from the ocean of solvent candidates for a best heat and mass transfer performance in an ES-SAGD process and hence the oil flux at the chamber edge can be maximized with a minimized solvent cost.