Combustion-Drive Tests

Abstract

SHOWALTER, W.E., UNION OIL CO. OF CALIFORNIA, BREA, CALIF. Abstract This paper discusses some of the results of combustion-drive tests which were made in a test cell using a sand bed 10 in. in diameter × 10-ft long. The test method is illustrated and described.The relationship between the API gravity of the in situ oil and the amount of air required for combustion drive is discussed n detail. Other things constant, the air requirement for combustion drive increases as the API gravity of the in situ oil decreases. If the test results apply to actual reservoirs, the lowest-priced oils may cost the most to recover by this method.Information is shown which indicates that the effect of pressure on the amount of hydrocarbon burned is not large. A method of predicting air requirements from the API gravity of the in situ oil is presented. Introduction Combustion drive is the term used to identify the process of interstitial or in situ burning as an oil recovery method. Part of the in situ oil is burned to generate the energy needed to produce the remainder of the oil. Combustion drive as an oil recovery mechanism remains an economic uncertainty in spite of all the work that has been done by the industry in both laboratory and field. This paper will show some of the results of tests which were made in a test cell for the purpose of studying the nature of the combustion-drive process. It will present data which indicate that the API gravity of the in situ oil is a significant indicator of the amount of air required to drive a burning front through oil sand. Air requirement varies inversely as the API gravity of the in situ oil. EXPERIMENTAL The tests were performed in a cell which utilized a cylindrical sand section 10 in. in diameter × 10-ft long. The thin-walled metal pipe which held the sand was wound with twenty external electrical resistance heaters which, by means of an automatic controller, maintained adjacent sections of the wall of the pipe at temperatures equal to the temperatures of the contained sand. Each heater covered 6 linear in. of the pipe. By this means lateral heat loss from the sand section was minimized, thereby causing the sand section to simulate more closely a horizontal increment of a combustion-drive reservoir.Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the test assembly.Thermocouplestomeasurethetemperature in the sand were located every 6 in. along the length of the sand section. The pipe containing the sand was enclosed in a cell designed for an operating pressure of 500 psig. The inlet air pressure was controlled at the inlet, and the gas flow rate was controlled and measured at the outlet of the cell.The oil sand used for the tests was prepared by mixing first water and then oil with the non-consolidated sand using a closed mixer similar to a cement mixer. Table 1 shows a screen analysis of the sand. Ninety percent of the sand was 100 mesh or finer. This sand was a mixture of 80 per cent No. 120 Nevada White Sand and 20 per cent Tennessee Hi-Fusion Moulding Sand No. 3. The Nevada sand was a clean silica sand. SPEJ P. 53^